Trump Rewards Cuban American Fans, Punishes Cubans
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – The disgraced president of the United States will go out with a bang in eight days or less. In the meantime, he seeks to pardon his enablers and pander to his key supporters. His placing Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday was his latest act.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who saw nothing wrong with his leader promoting an assault on the US Capitol, made the announcement. The idea is to make things harder for Joe Biden to return to the rapprochement with Cuba initiated by the Obama administration.
Pompeo apparently just discovered that several US fugitives from the 1970s and former Colombian rebels reside on the Island. Another justification is Cuba’s support of Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro, something that dates way back to his predecessor Hugo Chavez.
The move is popular among many Cuban American voters who helped Trump win Florida in the November election. These same people buy the conspiracy line that it was actually communist infiltrators that ransacked Congress. Like their leader proclaims, they consider the incoming Biden government a capitulation to communism in the USA.
In Cuba, the prospect of even greater hardship is not so popular, even among government dissenters.
The usual tit-for-tat
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of US justice.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez: “We condemn the cynical and hypocritical qualification of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, announced by the United States.”
Democrat representative Gregory Meeks said the last-minute designation is “another stunt by President Trump and Pompeo, trying to tie the hands of the incoming Biden administration on their way out the door.”
An obstacle to foreign investment
For Cuba, being on the list with Iran and North Korea means strict limits on possible foreign investment. It can also discourage companies from third countries.
The island already faces major shortages of basic foods and consumer products. This, due to a sharp decline of national production and a lack of funds to import. The government sees foreign investment as the only way to lift the highly depressed economy.
President-elect Biden says he will reopen travel for Cuban Americans and ease family remittance restrictions. He opposes further isolation of Cuba, despite the flagrant human rights abuses by the Castro-Diaz Canel government.
Why since 1966 my earliest full recollection of my history all I hear is that everything wrong with Cuba starts in the United States. I was born in Cuba. Lived my entire life in America. Product of the early freedom flights. What is wrong with Cuba are the Cubans in charge. Because they know that if they say foreign and National businesses ownership will be respected come on in. It is over for them. But a better life for their people. Humans everywhere have an evil tendency. But these problems are not America’s fault.
For the usually suspects nick And Curt. Sorry guys but you guys are so predictable. That is amazing. And I feel as Cuban you have no respect for for the thousands of political prisoners, the ppl killed in by the shooting squad, the gays who die in the concentration camps in Cuba (UMAP) the repression that dissents suffer even today. Cuba is an sponsor of terrorism in the world
https://youtu.be/f_C8a0maxYI
The fact that little man trump-the-loser has put anyone on a list of those who sponsor terrorism is a sick joke.
Given recent events, anyone acting as an apologist for trump’s disgusting hypocrisy is clearly a joker.
I am familiar with the expression ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’.
But anyone acting as an apologist for trump or looking for ways to excuse his actions needs to take a good look in the mirror.
Ask yourself if there is anywhere where you would ever draw the line.
If still in doubt, please study the tragic story of Germany in the 1930s.
Eltor, most of those who died in Central America were killed by the US backed Contras in Nicaragua. In El Salvador, the US backed government was responsible for thousands of deaths. The Contras and the Salvadorian government would go to homes of suspected leftists and killed entire families. Again, the US was directly or indirectly involved in these deaths.
Cuba coordinated all the “revolutions” in Latin America such as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela and they armed the guerrilas in Colombia – not a state sponsor of terror? Tell that to the 300,000 dead in Nicaragua’s long civil war, Colombia’s 60 year-old civil war, the war between Peru and Ecuador (Cuba sold both weapons). Read/confirm before posting. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article18886467.html.
Trump and his disciples have the nerve to designate Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism when Trump encouraged the terrorism unleashed on January 6. This is the worst domestic terrorism since 911.
Its funny that one of the reasons Cuba is being labeled a terrorist state because of the support given to the Maduro regime, yet Venezuela is not on the terrorism list. The riot at the capitol gave ammunition to dictators all over the world. Instead of a beacon of democracy, the US is a beacon of hypocrisy!
The whole world knows that Cuba sponsors precisely zero terrorism.
And out of sheer spite, trump-the-loser puts Cuba on a list of those who sponsor terrorism?
The irony is as rich as this move is pitiful.
He lost the election and now people are dying due to the mayhem caused by the fact that the trump-the-loser doesn’t take losing very well.
But he did win in Florida. That’s a fact. He’s just saying thanks to the right wing bozos down there in Miami.
Luis Posada Carriles was a terrorist, trained at the expense of the US taxpayer. He committed murderous terrorist acts against innocent Cuban people (not to mention those of other nationalities who were also victims of his ugly crimes).
He was then given safe haven by the USA down there with those very same right wing bozos in Miami.
Now trump-the-loser is causing mayhem. Internal domestic terrorism of the far right variety.
Can someone explain why this sad little orange faced individual is still making decisions in the USA?
Why hasn’t someone thrown this trump fool in jail??
Many good folk from the USA of yesteryear joined in the fight to liberate Europe from fascism.
These days the fascist threat comes from within the USA itself.
I wish the good U.S. folks of today the very best of luck in their work to rid themselves of this homegrown fascist/terrorist threat. Coz that’s tough work.