The Cuban military dictatorship joined the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar in blaming Israel for this weekend’s Hamas attacks, which have left hundreds of innocent civilians dead and thousands injured.
According to the Cuban regime’s Foreign Ministry, MINREX, the Hamas attack on Israel “is the result of 75 years of continuous violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and Israel's aggressive and expansionist policies.”
The communist regime’s statement comes hours after the press secretary of Cuban Communist Party appointed President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted an effusive, “Long live Free Palestine” on social media while the world watched the heartbreaking images of civilians being kidnapped and the naked bodies of women being paraded and dragged down public streets by Hamas.
Just a few months ago, a high-level delegation from Hamas visited the Cuban Ambassador in Lebanon, Jorge Porfirio León Cruz, who reaffirmed his support for the Palestinian cause.
The two regimes and U.S. designated state sponsors of terrorism also reviewed their "common agenda and cooperation" and "willingness to strengthen bilateral cooperation."
Leaders of the Miami Cuban exile community struck back, denouncing the Cuban regime’s support for the Hamas terrorist organization, asserting that it is always on the wrong side of history.
“The Castro regime’s support for the attacks against Israel is not surprising. It has long trained antisemitic terrorist groups and participated in prior attacks on Israel. They deserve their place on the list of state sponsors of terrorism,” said Marcell Felipe, President of “Inspire America,” a Miami based pro-democracy movement in an interview with ADN America.
Dr. Orlando Gutierrez, President of “Directorio Democratico Cubano” and the Chairman of the “Assembly of the Resistance,” an alliance of pro-democracy organizations said Havana’s military dictatorship has long supported causes aligned with evil.
“The communist tyranny in Cuba always falls on the side of evil, whether it be participating in Putin’s war against Ukraine or in supporting the Hamas terrorist onslaught against Israel. Let us not forget Castro combat brigades assaulted Israel in the Yom Kippur War,” Gutierrez told ADN.
The U.S. Department of State designated the Cuban regime as a state sponsor of terrorism (SSOT) on Jan. 11, 2021.
“The State Department has designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists,” the 2021 SSOT announcement says online.
“Cuba returns to the SST list following its broken commitment to stop supporting terrorism as a condition of its removal by the previous administration in 2015. On May 13, 2020, the State Department notified Congress that it had certified Cuba under Section 40A(a) of the Arms Export Control Act as “not cooperating fully” with U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2019.”
Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad told the BBC on Saturday that Hamas has received support from various countries, not just Iran, although he did not provide further details.
The U.S. Department of State Cuba SSOT designation chronicles a long history of the communist regime’s involvement with terrorist acts.
For decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine. Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, traveled to Havana to conduct peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017,” the State Department writes. “Citing peace negotiation protocols, Cuba has refused Colombia’s requests to extradite ten ELN leaders living in Havana after the group claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of a Bogota police academy that killed 22 people and injured more than 87 others.”
The SSOT designation also illuminated how Havana has acted as a shelter to provide safe harbor to fugitives trying to escape justice and criminal prosecution in the United States.
“Cuba also harbors several U.S. fugitives from justice wanted on or convicted of charges of political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades,” the site says. “For example, the Cuban regime has refused to return Joanne Chesimard, on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List for executing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973; Ishmael LaBeet, convicted of killing eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1972; Charles Lee Hill, charged with killing New Mexico state policeman Robert Rosenbloom in 1971; and others.”
