By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--April 15, 2015
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President Barack Obama notified Congress that he intends to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, less than a week after meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro in Panama. The move is the most significant act by the Obama administration to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba since announcing the policy shift in December. Cuba was first designated as a sponsor of terrorism in 1982. Cuba's designation as a sponsor of terrorism has been a stumbling block in the talks between the U.S. and Cuba. It barred the country from access to banks in the U.S. and made banks in other countries that have branches in the U.S. wary of doing business with the Cubans because of the risk they'd be fined for doing so. Obama's action gives Congress 45 days to respond.Remember that this is one of the conditions Cuba demanded before they would do us the honor of restoring diplomatic relations with them. Chew on that for a second. Every U.S. president since the communist revolution in 1957 has refused to recognize the Castro regime, citing their human rights violations and their state sponsorship of terrror. Obama, who loves nothing more than to give enemies of the U.S. whatever they want, decides to restore diplomatic relations after all these years.
Cuba has long provided safe haven to members of Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Reports continued to indicate that Cuba's ties to ETA have become more distant, and that about eight of the two dozen ETA members in Cuba were relocated with the cooperation of the Spanish government. Throughout 2013, the Government of Cuba supported and hosted negotiations between the FARC and the Government of Colombia aimed at brokering a peace agreement between the two. The Government of Cuba has facilitated the travel of FARC representatives to Cuba to participate in these negotiations, in coordination with representatives of the Governments of Colombia, Venezuela, and Norway, as well as the Red Cross. There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups. The Cuban government continued to harbor fugitives wanted in the United States. The Cuban government also provided support such as housing, food ration books, and medical care for these individuals.Are we really supposed to believe that any of this changed in the past two years? I can't wait to hear the congressional response to this. The case against this move is so obvious, it's hard to believe that even the Republicans in Congress could botch it. But I should know better than to overestimate them.
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