In response to the failed December 25 bomb attack on a Detroit-bound jetliner from Amsterdam, this week the Obama administration mandated that passengers from 14 “mostly Muslim countries,” in the New York Times words, be given immediate extra security checks when entering the U.S. The list of countries includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and....Cuba. Wait, Cuba? As a country that already holds the dubious distinction of being a “state sponsor of terrorism,” according to the State Dept., any and all Cubans entering the U.S. will also be pulled aside for extra security screening when passing through U.S. airport security—even though no known link exists between the United States’ cold war rival and fundamentalist Muslim extremists. On Tuesday, reports the AP, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana was summoned by the Cuban government in protest over the new measures. Cuba officials, it seems, are none too happy with their inclusion on the list. “We categorically reject this new hostile action by the government of the United States against Cuba,” Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office, told the AP.
As the Havana Note notes, the inclusion of Cuba on the list may spark debate about whether it may finally be time to pull Cuba from the State Dept.’s terrorism list (note: DOS is expected to update its state sponsor of terrorism list in April but the President has the power to pull a country off the list at any time). Here’s the New America Foundation’s Anya Landau French:
“While the Obama Administration may not be ready to normalize relations with Cuba just yet, you have to wonder whether it makes sense to keep Cuba on the terrorism list in an age when fewer states sponsor terrorism but many more tolerate or fail to stop the groups and individuals who plot against the United States in some of the most lawless corners of the world.”
And in his Washington Post column yesterday, Eugene Robinson concurs (again, the Havana Note seconds Robinson’s opinion). Besides the fact that there is almost no Islamic presence—of any kind—on the island, Robinson writes:
“Cuba is not a failed state where swaths of territory lie beyond government control; rather, it is one of the most tightly locked-down societies in the world, a place where the idea of private citizens getting their hands on plastic explosives, or terrorist weapons of any kind, is simply laughable.”
Robinson recently co-hosted a performance by Cuban musician, Carlos Varela, sponsored by New America and the Center for Democracy in the Americas, and he argues the president could take an important first (or second?) step toward a new U.S.-Cuba policy by “ceasing to pretend that looking for al-Qaeda terrorists on flights from Cuba is anything but a big waste of time.”
But, in explaining Cuba’s presence on the “special screening list,” State spokesman, P.J. Crowley, justified the recent decision Tuesday by noting Cuba’s past ties with groups like the FARC in Colombia: “Cuba is a designated state sponsor of terrorism, and we think it's a well-earned designation given their long-standing support for radical groups in the region.” Those words follow a recent statement from the DEA’s Andean region director, Jay Bergman, who described the relationship between Colombian rebels and al-Qaeda as an “unholy alliance.” Foreign Policy comments here on those words, writing the DEA is “stretching the evidence” with its portrayal of the said ‘unholy alliance’ of FARQaeda.
In other stories and opinions this morning:
· News yesterday that U.S. diplomat Craig Kelly was back in Tegucigalpa for his fourth visit to the country since the June coup. Kelly will be in-country for two days to “make intensive effort to achieve a breakthrough agreement,” in the words of the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. He met with Mel Zelaya in the Brazilian Embassy yesterday (Zelaya’s statement on the radio after the meeting: “I thank the United States for seeking a solution to Honduras' problem ... and that the United States is interested in having Micheletti leave the post as soon as possible”). And today Kelly plans to meet with president-elect Pepe Lobo and the de facto head of state, Roberto Micheletti. Addressing the visit at State’s daily briefing, P.J. Crowley said the visit was meant “to communicate clearly to a variety of parties that there are still things that Honduras has to do.” “Most importantly, you need to have this truth commission that is part of a healing process that has to occur if Honduras is going to, to advance,” Crowley said.
· Other Honduras notes and opinions this morning: RNS at Honduras Coup 2009 says Carlos Lara, Secretary of the Honduran Congress, told a local radio station yesterday that amnesty will be approved by the Congress next week. Such a move would allow Mel Zelaya to exit the Brazilian Embassy. The Inter-American Dialogue’s Peter Hakim writes about the on-going challenges that the unresolved Honduran crisis continues to pose to U.S. policy in Latin America (Hakim: “The greatest dangers to democratic rule today come from elected leaders (not coups), who overstep their legitimate authority—by concentrating power, curtailing opposition political activity, muzzling the press, and short-circuiting constitutional processes…”) Independent journalist Belen Fernandez has reporting from Tegucigalpa about how the Honduran military has kept items like writing utensils out of the hands of Zelaya and his embassy guests. And Noam Chomsky reflects on the imprint made on Latin America by Barack Obama and the three presidents-turned-Nobel Peace Prize winners who preceded him.
· At the Americas Program, Marie Trigona has a piece on the historic trial of 17 former military officers in Argentina, involved in human rights abuses at the infamous ESMA Naval Mechanics School. More than 200 witnesses, many of them former victims of the military junta that governed Argentina from 1976 to 1983, are expected to testify. “This trial will bring to light the evidence showing how the ESMA functioned, because not only navy and military officers are facing trial, but also police and civilians. In this aspect, the trial is important because it will further dismantle the wall of impunity,” says Juan De Wandelaer of the human rights group SERPAJ. According to Patrick Rice, a former Irish priest detained in 1976 for his social work in Argentine villas, “Argentina is taking a clear lead on human rights, with its trials on crimes committed during the past.”
· In Le Monde Diplomatique, a piece from Guatemala on violence against human rights and environmental activists. In the first half of 2009, there were 241 attacks on human-rights defenders, says Yuri Melini, of the Guatemalan NGO Calas (the Center for Legal, Environmental, and Social Action) and himself a victim of threats and attempted attacks. Citing a “crisis of governmentality” in the country, “on the one hand, there is no sense of corporate responsibility,” says Melini. “And on the other hand, there is total impunity and a justice system that doesn’t work.”
· Finally, in the Miami Herald, Professor Denise Dresser on the declining political and economic status of Mexico. “For too long, government officials have tinkered with Mexico's economic structure through piecemeal reforms that seek to ensure political stability but that do not address the key obstacles to greater innovation and competitiveness,” argues Dresser.” “What the current crisis has proved is that Mexico cannot continue to float, ignoring its nakedness. It needs to rethink the fundamentals of an economy and political system in which entrenched interests have become ‘veto centers’ for reform.”
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