U.S. puts Cuba on terrorism list (Jan. 14, 2021)

The U.S. State Department designated Cuba as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists," on Monday. The move, coming just a week before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden takes office, caps four years of escalating measures against Cuba by President Donald Trump, reports the Miami Herald. The designation will hamper the incoming administration's plan to re-thaw relations with Cuba. Biden had promised on the campaign trail to return to the normalization carried out by the Obama administration.

The outgoing U.S. Trump administration's designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is "diplomatic vandalism," part of a series of moves aimed at hampering the incoming administration's foreign policy, experts told the Washington Post.

Removing Cuba from the list, which includes only three other nations: Iran, North Korea and Syria, is a bureaucratic process that will take months. (See post for Jan. 4.) Trump administration sanctions against Cuba, the harshest in decades, have contributed to a profound economic crisis in Cuba. The new terrorism label could hinder commercial deals with third countries that Cuba relies on to import essential goods and deter foreign investment in the country's private sector, reports the Washington Post.

Few U.S, allies believe Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, notes the Associated Press. Many reject the definition based on support for Maduro, or reject claims that Cuban authorities are bankrolling or masterminding international terrorist attacks. Caricom criticized the unilateral declaration by the outgoing United States administration to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism: "Cuba’s international conduct does not in any way warrant that designation."

The U.S. stance also ignores Cuba's key role in ending Colombia's civil war, work applauded by the Obama administration, notes CNN. Indeed, Cuba's refusal to hand over 10 leaders of the Cuban ELN is due to its role as a guarantor in peace talks between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government, which fell apart in the wake of a January 2019 attack on a police training school in Bogotá, reports the Washington Post.

The public designation could further “poison” the atmosphere of bilateral relations, “but it would not significantly delay President Biden from re-engaging with Cuba,” William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University, told the Miami Herald.

Indeed, while Cuba's government strenuously rejected the U.S. designation of the country as a "state sponsor of terrorism," it has high hopes for a shift in U.S. policy under Biden, reports the New York Times. In addition to campaign promises to restore the normalization process between the U.S. and Cuba, Biden's senior foreign policy transition team were involved in Cuba negotiations in the Obama administration and are well positioned to roll back harsh Trump administration measures that have deepened Cuba's economic crisis.

News Briefs

Democracy

• Haiti's electoral commission -- unilaterally appointed by President Jovenel Moïse -- set an electoral calendar for this year that includes long overdue parliamentary elections in September, as well as a controversial constitutional referendum in April. Presidential elections will be held in September, and the second round will be in November, with local elections. Definitive results for the presidential election are not expected until January of next year based on this schedule, reports the Miami Herald. Moïse has been ruling by decree for a year, after announcing parliament’s partial closure due to delayed elections. He does not intend to step down next month, when some legal scholars and opponents say his legal mandate ends.

Covid-19

• As some countries in the world launch coronavirus vaccination campaigns, and most others struggle to obtain jabs, Caricom expressed deep concern regarding inequitable access to vaccines. "The reality is that small states will find it difficult to compete in the market place to ensure equitable access for vaccines."

• Cuba is partnering with Iran to produce a Covid-19 vaccine developed by scientists on the island, the latest example of how the two U.S.-sanctioned nations are building closer ties, reports the Miami Herald. Cuba announced last week that it will transfer the technology for its most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate and carry out last-stage clinical trials of the shot in Iran, reports Reuters.

• Cuba has two drugs – Sovereign 01 and 02 – among the 47 candidates registered with the World Health Organization to fight the pandemic, reports the Jamaica Gleaner. The Cuban vaccines do not require storage at extremely low temperatures. 

• Cuba started using nationally developed nasal drops -- Nasalferón -- to block replication of SARS-CoV-2 in patients. They are currently being administered to Cubans returning from abroad and their cohabitants, but the government plans to ramp up use for Havana's population. (Página 12)

Climate Justice and Resilience

• Volcanoes that have been quiet for decades are rumbling to life in the eastern Caribbean -- officials have issued alerts in Martinique and St Vincent and the Grenadines. (Associated Press) St Lucia is prepared to take in residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the event that the current activity at the La Soufriere Volcano intensifies, according to Prime Minister Allen Chastanet. (Repeating Islands) 

• A Dutch-financed research program, entitled Islanders at the Helm, will bring together researchers and societal partners to combine technical, traditional, and contemporary knowledge practices to co-create sustainable and inclusive strategies for social adaptation to climatic challenges. The program will be chaired by former University of St. Martin (USM) president Dr. Francio Guadeloupe and will foster climate resiliency research in the humanities, social and natural sciences. (Saint Martin News Network)

• Litigation has emerged as a policy tool for seeking redress for past and prospective harm resulting from climate change. A review in Climate Policy by Caribbean academic Stacy-Ann Robinson and others found it has potential to force greater national and sub-national government action on climate change.

• Global Witness retracted a report from last year, "Signed Away," which focused on how much revenue Guyana could obtain from oil if the government negotiated a fairer deal with the Exxon oil company. The group maintains its criticism of the previous Guyanese administration's deal with Exxon, but said its calculations were based on non-implementation of theParis Agreement climate commitments, leading to an overestimation of the amount of oil Guyana would likely produce and the value of that oil. Critics have noted that the original report was a political bombshell in the midst of last year's heated presidential election campaign, and questioned Global Witness' approach. (Kaieteur News)

•  vice president Ronnie Brunswijk has a turbulent past: he's been an elite paratrooper, a soccer player, a wanted bank robber, a guerrilla leader, a gold baron and a father to at least 50 children. Now he wants to be known as the man who will spread the country’s newfound oil wealth equitably -- New York Times Saturday Profile.

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot be relied on to deliver global 2030 emissions reductions, whilst the majority of CCS that exists is being used to extract more oil, according to a new assessment commissioned by Global Witness and Friends of the Earth Scotland. 

Diplomacy

• "The current U.S. approach to China’s interest in the Caribbean has relied too heavily on a Cold War mentality in which Caribbean nations are viewed either as part of the United States’ backyard or proxies of China. This has led to the unfortunate habit of U.S. officials lecturing and threatening Caribbean leaders and their governments about the consequences of engaging with China," argues Wazim Mowla in Global Americans.
  
• The presidents of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, signed nine agreements in which they commit to confronting the irregular migratory flow and the issues of trade, maritime borders, sovereignty, health, and others common to both nations that share the island of Hispaniola. (Dominican Today)
  
• Venezuela criticized joint naval exercises by the United States and Guyana. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told a news conference that the maneuvers were an attempt by the outgoing Trump administration to “create provocations, threats," reports Reuters. (

Finance and Transparency

• Bermuda Premier David Burt plans to reform the country's tax system. He noted that the existing system taxes labour, through a payroll tax, but no other sources of income, which Burt described as fundamentally unfair. (Cayman Compass)

• Danish prosecutors have formally charged the suspected organisers of a billion-dollar tax fraud scheme, four weeks after the Cayman Islands Grand Court allowed local corporate service providers to offer foreign judicial assistance by disclosing documents of certain Cayman entities in a related US civil lawsuit brought by Denmark’s tax authority. (Cayman Compass)

Human Rights

• Eleven years after Haiti's crushing 7.0 earthquake in 2010, thousands of Haitians who fled the country remain in precarious conditions across the region, with many stuck at the Mexico-U.S. border, reports the Miami Herald.
• The earthquake was by far the largest natural disaster in a country that has had more than its share of such calamities. The world reacted to the earthquake by sending in literally armies of soldiers and aid workers to help. But the first responders were Haitians themselves who used everything they had, including their bare hands, to pry loose people who were buried under the rubbles, writes Garry Pierre-Pierre in a Haitian Times retrospective.
  

Gender

• Caribbean author, Patricia Powell will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming “Writing about Caribbean Gender and Social Justice Virtual Conference." (Repeating Islands)
  

Anti-Colonialism and Reparations

• Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI), is one of the recipients of this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Award, in recognition for his global advocacy, academic scholarship and intellectual leadership in support of social justice, institutional equity, and economic development for marginalised and oppressed ethnicities and nations. (Jamaica Observer)

Celebrating Culture

• The pandemic killed Trinidad & Tobago's 2021 Carnival, but soca music keeps the spirit alive, writes Janine Mendes-Franco at Global Voices.

• Leonardo Padura’s La transparencia del tiempo -- the basis of Netflix’s Four Seasons in Havana -- will be out in English later this year. (Repeating Islands)

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