Cuba Still Get Black List Terrorists U.S. version

United States continues to put Cuba on the blacklist of countries allegedly supporting terrorism for 30 years in a row, the State Department said in its annual report on Tuesday (07/31/2012).
Cuba strongly condemn such actions and refer to it as another attempt to justify the U.S. trade embargo that was imposed for 50 years against the island nation ruled by a communist.
"Cuba's Foreign Ministry flatly rejected it as a very sensitive issue of terrorism was used for a handful of interests and political objectives, and (Cuba) demanded the U.S. government to stop lying," the government said in a statement Havana.
Cuba's Communist Party-controlled regime is one of the four countries that continue to enter the United States blacklisted besides Iran, Sudan, and Syria. The difference is the freezing of Cuban trade sanctions, including blocking the receipt of aid from the U.S..
The report accused Cuba hide members of illegal armed groups, including the Basque separatist group, ETA, and the militant left wing of Colombia, FARC, and the fugitive being sought by U.S. courts. U.S. set either ETA or FARC as a terrorist group.
In addition, the U.S. found "flaws" in the Cuban efforts to follow international standards in combating money laundering and financing terrorist groups.
However, there is no evidence that Cuba has a weapon or paramilitary training to the militants, and press reports indicate the Castro regime's attempt to distance themselves from the Basque separatist group who live there, the department said.
Havana continued to reject allegations involving members of the FARC and ETA are addressed by Washington in its annual report.
From the U.S. there are a number of domestic calls for repeal of Cuba's state of the black list of countries supporting terrorism. The parties argue, there is no objective criteria for deciding a country's included or not included into the list. They added that the blacklist fails to recognize the progress made Cuba and not productive for efforts to improve relations between the two neighbors.


In the report, the U.S. said Iran "tried to expand its activities in the Western Region" and added that "most disturbing manifestation" of that effort is a plan to use a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.
The U.S. State Department report also said Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's government to maintain "economic cooperation, financial, and diplomatic engagement with Iran".
Growing hostility between Washington to Caracas in 2010, making the country attractive to each other their respective ambassadors.
But the report praised Mexico for defending "vigilance against the threat of domestic and international terrorism," including working on the operation foiled plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador.