US Bishops’ Committee is criticized for requesting that Cuba be removed from the list of sponsors of terrorism

The call by the president of one of the committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for Joe Biden’s government to remove Cuba from the list of State sponsors of terrorism has provoked a rapid reaction from various sectors.

On Tuesday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released a letter by Bishop Abdallah Elias Zaidan, president of the International Justice and Peace Committee, in which he urged the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to “remove the designation of Cuba as a State sponsor of terrorism.”

In his letter, Bishop Zaidan cited the position of his predecessor in office, Bishop David Malloy, who in January 2021 opposed the designation carried out by the Donald Trump administration.

Cuba is currently on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism along with North Korea, Iran and Syria. Countries are added if they have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”

Bishop Zaidan echoed Bishop Malloy’s 2021 statement, which recalls that “for decades, together with the Holy See and the majority of the international community, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged collaboration and mutually beneficial relations between the United States and Cuba, as well as the full lifting of the economic embargo against the island nation.”

The letter of Mons. Zaidan was well received by the Cuban embassy in the United States, which denounced the “harmful consequences” of the Caribbean country’s inclusion on the list. More of 250 progressive organizations Around the world they also recently intensified the campaign to remove Cuba from the list, stating that it is not a state sponsor of terrorism but rather “a state sponsor” of “health”, “peace” and “liberation”. “

However, Bishop Zaidan’s letter also provoked a swift negative reaction from dissident and pro-democracy leaders opposed to the Cuban regime.

In an interview with CNA—EWTN News’ English-language agency—Yuri Pérez, an exiled Cuban dissident and director of Latin American Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, argued that the USCCB committee was “advocating for the regime.” .

“There are two different issues,” Pérez said. “One is the embargo and sanctions, which are tools that the United States government uses to pressure the Cuban government to change,” he explained. “The list of terrorists is more objective,” since “it is based on the behavior of the regime.”

Pérez noted that there is “a lot of pressure for the Biden administration to remove Cuba from the list,” but “to make that decision, the regime has to change its behavior. And his behavior has not changed.”

One factor for Cuba’s inclusion on the list, Pérez said, is that it harbors terrorists on the island. “An easy step for the regime to get off the list would be to expel these people and hand them over to the countries that are looking for them,” he argued.

For his part, Jason Poblete, lawyer, Catholic and president of Global Liberty Alliance (GLA), said in an interview with CNA that the USCCB committee’s letter was “disconnected from reality.”

Poblete said GLA has worked specifically with the Catholic Church in Cuba on issues of human rights and religious freedom. American bishops, she argued, “should respectfully focus on issues of faith and not on issues related to national security.”

Poblete noted that the reasons for calling a country a state sponsor of terrorism are largely classified by the State Department.

“Most of the Cuban priests I deal with support the designation,” he said, although they do not know the specific reasons for it.

Poblete dismissed the idea that the US embargo on the island is contributing to its current crises, since vital products such as food and medicine are allowed to enter.

“The problems in Cuba have nothing to do with the embargo,” he assured. “It is a totalitarian police state. I wish the bishops would take this into account before writing things like this,” she added.

In addition to accusations of supporting terrorism, Cuba’s communist government has long been criticized for its chronic human rights violations. The group Human Rights Watch, for example, says the regime “continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism” and uses “arbitrary detentions to harass and intimidate critics.”

Meanwhile, Pérez said lobbying efforts to remove Cuba from the list are likely to intensify in the coming months, especially if President Joe Biden loses the presidency.

Removal advocates, he argued, would work to pressure the Biden administration to remove Cuba before the Democrat leaves the White House.

The USCCB did not respond to a request for comment sent Wednesday by CNA.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.