A group of 16 policy organizations and individuals with an interest in improving
U.S.-Cuba relations has questioned whether the island nation belongs on the State Department's list of
terrorist states that includes Cuba but not Afghanistan.
"We believe that accuracy is required in defining the `terrorist nations' [that President Bush] has said the
United States will punish," said a group statement issued Tuesday in Washington. "Does that mean all
those on the list of terrorist states? Surely, it is time to raise the question of whether Cuba belongs on the
list at all."
Frank Calzon, executive director of the
Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba,
disagreed with the contention.
"Whether Cuba should belong on the terrorist list is
a matter that should be decided on the basis of
evidence, and there's plenty of evidence that he
supports terrorism," Calzon said of President Fidel
Castro. "If somebody wants to know what Mr.
Castro wants to do to the United States, all one
has to do is take a look at what he's willing to do
to his own people. And folks who claim that Cuba
doesn't support terrorism simply have to go to a
library and look up a number of things."
Calzon said that, as recently as last year, during a
summit in Panama, Cuba reportedly balked at
backing a resolution proposed by El Salvador
condemning the violent Basque separatist group
ETA in Spain.
Among the names on this week's press release calling for a re-examination of Washington's Cuba policy
were Cuban expatriates and leaders of associations seeking a change in U.S. policy toward Havana.
Included were Albert Fox, president of the Washington-based Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy;
Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and a fellow at the Center for
International Policy; Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based
human-rights organization; Alejandro Portes, president of Cuban Committee for Democracy; and Lisa
Valanti, president of the Pittsburgh-based U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association.
U.S. rationale for keeping Cuba on the list has included the charge that Cuba harbors Spanish Basque
terrorists, that it has contacts with Colombian guerrillas and that there are a number of fugitives from U.S.
justice living on the island.
But, the group said, Basque separatists living in Cuba are there as a result of an agreement between the
Spanish and Cuban governments. As for Colombia, the U.S. also has had contacts with the same
guerrilla groups, and U.S. fugitives remain in Cuba largely because there is no extradition treaty between
the U.S. and Cuba.
A press release containing the statement noted that it often has been said that, while there are no
convincing reasons to keep Cuba on the list of terrorist states, it is best left on because removing it would
offend elements of the Cuban-American community. "However," the statement said, "we no longer can
afford to confuse and divert our struggle against real terrorist threats because of domestic political
considerations."
The statement said that Castro has reiterated Cuba's willingness to cooperate with all countries in the
total eradication of terrorism.
"That is a possibility that should be explored," the group said. "In this new world context dominated by
the struggle against terrorism, Cuba clearly will not be an unquestioning ally, but it need not be an
enemy. Given the challenges we now face, it is not in the interests of the U.S. to treat it as an enemy."
Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune
