Cuba condemns Trump’s decision to reinstate it on state sponsor of terrorism list
Havana: Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has condemned US President Donald Trump’s decision to put the island back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, calling Trump’s actions “an act of arrogance and disregard for the truth”.
“President Trump, in an act of arrogance and disregard for the truth, has just reinstated the fraudulent designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Díaz-Canel wrote on Monday on X.
“This is not surprising. His goal is to continue strengthening the cruel economic war against Cuba for the purpose of domination.”
“The result of the extreme economic siege measures imposed by Trump has been to cause shortages among our people and a significant increase in the migratory flow from Cuba to the United States,” the Cuban President said in a separate post.
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also issued a scathing response to the decision.
“Drunk with arrogance, President Trump decides without reason that Cuba sponsors terrorism. He knows that he is LYING. His determination is to increase the punishment and the economic war against Cuban families. It will cause harm, but it will not break the firm determination of our people. We will win,” Rodriguez said in a post on X.
The Biden administration announced on January 14 that it would remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 2021, saying at the time that Havana was “providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbour to terrorists” after refusing to extradite leaders of a Colombian guerrilla organisation who were in Havana for peace talks when a deadly bombing took place in the South American nation.
Cuba has been one of just four nations designated as state sponsors of terrorism, along with North Korea, Iran, and Syria.
Cuban officials have advocated for their country’s removal as a state sponsor of terror, which triggers stringent economic sanctions in addition to more than the six decades-old US embargo.
President Donald Trump on Monday revoked Biden-era executive actions that withdrew Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, that applied sanctions on Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and that sought to reduce the risks of artificial intelligence.
The rescinded orders were part of a mass reversal of Biden-era policies that Trump signed at Capital One arena following his swearing-in as the 47th President of the US.
Biden only recently removed Cuba from the terror list. The list of revoked orders Trump signed on Monday did not specify individual reasons for reversing Biden’s decision.
Biden applied the sanctions on certain Jewish settlers accused of fomenting violence in the West Bank in February 2024. And his 2023 AI order aimed to monitor and regulate the risks of artificial intelligence.