Latin America rebels against Obama over Cuba: State Department calls Cuba a sponsor of terrorism!

[Better Believe It]

Latin America rebels against Obama over Cuba
By Andrew Cawthorne and Brian Ellsworth
CARTAGENA, Colombia
April 15, 2012

Unprecedented Latin American opposition to U.S. sanctions on Cuba left President Barack Obama isolated at a summit on Sunday and illustrated Washington's declining influence in a region being aggressively courted by China.

Unlike the rock-star status he enjoyed at the 2009 Summit of the Americas after taking office, Obama has had a bruising time at the two-day meeting in Colombia of some 30 heads of state.

For the first time, conservative-led U.S. allies like Mexico and Colombia are throwing their weight behind the traditional demand of leftist governments that Cuba be invited to the next Summit of the Americas.

.... Latin American leaders are increasingly militant in opposing both Cuba's exclusion and the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on the Caribbean island.

Read the full article at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-americas-summit-idUSBRE83D0E220120416


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The U.S. State Department Department continues to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism while lacking any evidence to back up that assertion.

Here's the latest State Department statement regarding this designation which was released on August 18, 2011: BBI


Chapter 3: State Sponsors of Terrorism
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Country Reports on Terrorism 2010
August 18, 2011

CUBA

Overview: Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1982, the Government of Cuba maintained a public stance against terrorism and terrorist financing in 2010, but there was no evidence that it had severed ties with elements from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and recent media reports indicate some current and former members of the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) continue to reside in Cuba. Available information suggested that the Cuban government maintained limited contact with FARC members, but there was no evidence of direct financial or ongoing material support. In March, the Cuban government allowed Spanish Police to travel to Cuba to confirm the presence of suspected ETA members.

Cuba continued to denounce U.S. counterterrorism efforts throughout the world, portraying them as a pretext to extend U.S. influence and power.

Cuba has been used as a transit point by third-country nationals looking to enter illegally into the United State. The Government of Cuba is aware of the border integrity and transnational security concerns posed by such transit and investigated third country migrant smuggling and related criminal activities. In November, the government allowed representatives of the Transportation Security Administration to conduct a series of airport security visits throughout the island.

Legislation and Law Enforcement: Cuba did not pass new counterterrorism legislation in 2010. The Cuban government continued to aggressively pursue persons suspected of terrorist acts in Cuba. In July, Venezuela extradited Salvadoran national Francisco Antonio Chavez Abarca to Cuba for his alleged role in a number of hotel and tourist location bombings in the mid to late 1990s. In December, a Cuban court convicted Chavez Abarca on terrorism charges and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Also in December, the Cuban Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of two Salvadorans, René Cruz León and Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, who had been convicted of terrorism, and sentenced them both to 30 years.

Regional and International Cooperation: Cuba did not sponsor counterterrorism initiatives or participate in regional or global operations against terrorists in 2010.

http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2010/170260.htm


Wow! This is pretty strong State Department evidence of Cuba's ongoing operations to promote terrorism and protect terrorists in the world! Scary!

" Available information suggested that the Cuban government maintained limited contact with FARC members, but there was no evidence of direct financial or ongoing material support. In March, the Cuban government allowed Spanish Police to travel to Cuba to confirm the presence of suspected ETA members.

In November, the government allowed representatives of the Transportation Security Administration to conduct a series of airport security visits throughout the island.

The Cuban government continued to aggressively pursue persons suspected of terrorist acts in Cuba. In July, Venezuela extradited Salvadoran national Francisco Antonio Chavez Abarca to Cuba for his alleged role in a number of hotel and tourist location bombings in the mid to late 1990s. In December, a Cuban court convicted Chavez Abarca on terrorism charges and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Also in December, the Cuban Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of two Salvadorans, René Cruz León and Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, who had been convicted of terrorism, and sentenced them both to 30 years."

BBI

[msongs]

1. Obama vs Cuba - which one uses drones to murder women and children? nt

[EFerrari]

2. Are we on that list, having trained MEK in Nevada?

[NYC_SKP]

3. All this fuss notwithstanding, the truth is that Latin America loves Obama.

eom

[Better Believe It]

4. You're absolutely right. They hate Cuba hoping that drones will targeted against Havana terrorists!

[DutchLiberal]

6. Since his embrace of Honduras' fascist coup dictatorship? Not so much.

You gotta keep up with the facts.

[a la izquierda]

7. Uh, maybe.

It depends on who you talk to, where, and about what.
I think people (at least in Mexico and parts of Central America) are intrigued by our race history and President Obama's overcoming such adversity to become president.
But Latin America has a generally ambivalent relationship with the US, and thus to its Presidents.

[Speck Tater]

5. I think the State Department needs to grow up and get over the 60's. nt

[Better Believe It]

8. If the State Department insists Cuba is a sponsor of terrorism without any evidence, what does

that say about their level of competence or honesty under the Obama administration?

[Bobbie Jo]

9. "competence or honesty..."

Enough of the Fox News-style leaps.

Good grief.

[Daniel537]

10. "Cuba continued to denounce U.S. counterterrorism efforts throughout the world"

If that alone is enough to qualify someone as a terrorist, then put me on the list because i've been denouncing our war in Afghanistan for years now. The Cuba-terrorist thing is nothing but leftovers from the Cold War. I mean, what kind of serious terror-supporting country allows the TSA to conduct inspections of its own airports. Jeffrey Goldberg had a good article about this a few months ago.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/jeffrey-goldberg-don-t-lump-cuba-with-iran-on-u/article_44e632f9-bf27-5848-8320-59f12cfc47f1.html

[Better Believe It]

11. Thanks for the link. I hadn't read the article.

So Cuba opposes the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan which makes it a sponsor of terrorism!

Well, that false criteria makes most people and governments in the world sponsors of terrorism!

[dionysus]

12. try harder, you can do it.

[Better Believe It]

13. I can do what?

Is this by any chance an "off-topic drive-by" attack?

Just wondering.