21 May 2002
Cuba Continues to
Sponsor Terrorism, Says State Department Report
2001 report on global terrorism accuses Castro of harboring fugitives
The regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro continues to harbor international
fugitives suspected of terrorist activity and other violent crimes, while
refusing to cooperate with countries seeking to extradite those fugitives,
according to the State Department's annual "Pattern of Global Terrorism"
report.
Released May 21, the 2001 edition of the report charges that Castro's regime
has allowed members of various terrorist organizations "to reside in Cuba as
privileged guests" and "provided some degree of safe haven and support" to
these criminals. In addition, the report says that during the past year,
"numerous U.S. fugitives continued to live on the island, including Joanne
Chesimard, wanted in the United States for the murder in 1973 of a New
Jersey police officer and living as a guest of the Castro regime since
1979." Following is an excerpt from the report's "Overview of
State-Sponsored Terrorism" segment, pertaining to Cuba:
Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
"Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are
with us, or you are with the terrorists." -- President George W. Bush, 20
September 2001
President Bush put state supporters of terrorism on notice in his 20
September address to the joint session of Congress: "Every nation, in every
region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with
the terrorists." The seven designated state sponsors -- Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan -- clearly heard the President's
message. While some of these countries appear to be reconsidering their
present course, none has yet taken all necessary actions to divest itself
fully of ties to terrorism.
Cuba
Since September 11, Fidel Castro has vacillated over the war on terrorism.
In October, he labeled the U.S.-led war on terrorism "worse than the
original attacks, militaristic and fascist."
When this tactic earned ostracism rather than praise, he undertook an effort
to demonstrate Cuban support for the international campaign against
terrorism and signed all 12 U.N. counterterrorism conventions as well as the
Ibero-American declaration on terrorism at the 2001 summit. Although Cuba
decided not to protest the detention of suspected terrorists at the U.S.
Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, it continued to denounce the global effort
against terrorism -- even by asserting that the United States was
intentionally targeting Afghan children and Red Cross hospitals.
Cuba's signature of U.N. counterterrorism conventions notwithstanding,
Castro continued to view terror as a legitimate revolutionary tactic. The
Cuban Government continued to allow at least 20 Basque ETA members to reside
in Cuba as privileged guests and provided some degree of safe haven and
support to members of the Colombian FARC and ELN groups. In August, a Cuban
spokesman revealed that Sinn Fein's official representative for Cuba and
Latin America, Niall Connolly, who was one of three Irish Republican Army
members arrested in Colombia on suspicion of providing explosives training
to the FARC, had been based in Cuba for five years. In addition, the recent
arrest in Brazil of the leader of a Chilean terrorist group, the Frente
Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR), has raised the strong possibility that
in the mid-1990s, the Cuban Government harbored FPMR terrorists wanted for
murder in Chile. The arrested terrorist told Brazilian authorities he had
traveled through Cuba on his way to Brazil. Chilean investigators had traced
calls from FPMR relatives in Chile to Cuba following an FPMR prison break in
1996, but the Cuban Government twice denied extradition requests, claiming
that the wanted persons were not in Cuba and the phone numbers were
incorrect.
Numerous U.S. fugitives continued to live on the island, including Joanne
Chesimard, wanted in the United States for the murder in 1973 of a New
Jersey police officer and living as a guest of the Castro regime since 1979.
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