viernes, 10 de abril de 2015

Cuba still provides sanctuary for wanted terrorists

Cuba still provides sanctuary for wanted terrorists
Alan Gomez, USA TODAY 8:59 a.m. EDT April 9, 2015

MIAMI — President Obama is weighing whether to remove Cuba as a state
sponsor of terrorism even as the island nation maintains ties with
nations such as North Korea and continues to provide a sanctuary for
militants.

Obama plans to meet Cuban President Raúl Castro at a summit of the
Americas in Panama on Friday and Saturday as he awaits a State
Department review of whether Cuba still belongs on its list of terror
sponsors.

Removal from the list after 33 years would allow American banks and
businesses to operate in Cuba and remove an impediment to full
diplomatic relations with the United States.

The State Department has sent a recommendation to the White House that
Cuba be removed from the list, CNN reported Wednesday. It said the White
House could announce the change as soon as Thursday, citing two
unidentified administration officials.

To remove Cuba from the list, U.S. officials must find that Cuba has not
engaged in acts of terrorism in the previous six months and has made
assurances it will not do so in the future. If Obama decides to remove
Cuba from the list, he must submit a report to Congress, which will have
45 days to block the move or allow it to happen.

The most difficult obstacle to overcome is the sanctuary Cuba continues
to offer those deemed terrorists by the U.S. government.

Cuba has also provided safe haven to members of the Colombian guerrilla
army known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which
has been waging a civil war with the Colombian government since the 1960s.

In addition, Cuba is providing refuge for dozens of U.S. fugitives,
including one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists — Joanne Chesimard, a
member of the Black Liberation Army. She shot and killed a New Jersey
State Police trooper execution-style in 1973. She received a life
sentence but escaped prison and made her way to Cuba.

"It is essential to recognize that the Castro regime has a long track
record of providing sanctuary to terrorists and harboring U.S. fugitives
who have murdered American citizens, while undermining national
security," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., wrote in a Feb. 26 letter to
Secretary of State John Kerry. "Before Cuba is removed from (the list),
the Castro regime must be held to account for these acts and American
fugitives must be brought back to face justice in the U.S."

Cuba's stance on accepting international fugitives has been changing,
however. Earlier this year, the State Department concluded that "Cuba's
ties to ETA have become more distant." The government says it no longer
accepts ETA members for sanctuary and has moved eight of the two dozen
ETA members out of the country.

Cuba's relationship with the FARC has also changed as Havana has become
the host city for multiple rounds of peace negotiations between the
guerrilla movement and Colombia's government. That process has been
praised by the United Nations and the United States, which appointed a
special envoy to the negotiations earlier this year.

While Cuba continues to deny American requests to extradite Chesimard
and others, a Congressional Research Service report last August found
that Cuba has returned fugitives in three cases in recent years.

Cuba's support of rogue regimes is another source of controversy. In the
past two years, it has twice been caught shipping military equipment in
violation of international laws.

In March, Colombian officials arrested the captain of a Chinese ship
headed for Cuba that contained 100 tons of gunpowder, 2.6 million
detonators and other military equipment. And in July 2013, Panamanian
authorities stopped a North Korean ship trying to cross the Panama
Canal. After digging through 200,000 bags of Cuban sugar, they found
containers filled with surface-to-air missile systems, two disassembled
MiG-21 aircraft and other military equipment.

Cuba can argue that it is forced to buy spare military parts from
nations such as North Korea because the still-to-be-lifted U.S. economic
embargo and being on the terror list bar Cuba from dealing with U.S.
suppliers, says Carl Meacham, director of the America's Program at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"They can't go to Boeing and say, 'Hey, we have to refurbish our tanks
and our planes and our helicopters' because they've operating as a
pariah country," Meacham said. "They've been isolated."

Cuba also remains a close ally of Venezuela, where President Nicolás
Maduro has suppressed anti-government protests and arrested political
opponents.

Despite such activities, the State Department has concluded that Cuba's
days as a global promoter of terrorism and armed insurrections are over.
"There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or
paramilitary training to terrorist groups (in the past year)," the State
Department said in a report this year.

That does not satisfy critics who say Cuba continues to behave badly.

"I think the Obama administration has already made a political decision
to remove Cuba from the list," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, executive
director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, which opposed Obama's decision
to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba. "But if the assessment is
made on facts and law, it's very difficult to remove them."

Source: Cuba still provides sanctuary for wanted terrorists -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/09/cuba-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-state-department-review/70432924/

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