The NBC News interviewed Johana Tablada, US deputy general director at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Below we share fragments of the article:
- The inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism has a direct link to more Cubans leaving for the U.S. Cuban officials say including Cuba in the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism has worsened its economic conditions. "The maximum pressure, the extreme measures that they inherited from the government of Trump and some that were taken even during Biden's government are wreaking havoc on the Cuban population," The inclusion of Cuba in the terrorism list has a direct link with the wave of migrants that is coming to the United States."
In 2021, former President Donald Trump’s administration reinstated Cuba to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, reversing former President Barack Obama’s 2015 removal from it, which he did as part of his administration's efforts to normalize relations with the island. Placement on the list translated into heavier sanctions on Cuba, which was already subject to a U.S. embargo on trade, and Cuba officials and other experts say it has had a major impact on the island's economy.
- This financial impact, Tablada said, is part of the push and pulls of migration that currently is causing more Cubans to go to the United States. “The U.S. hasn’t been effective in the No. 1 goal of overthrowing the Cuban revolution and the government that they don’t like, but unfortunately and painfully the United States has been very effective in damaging the standard of living in a very short time of the Cuban population ... [for]a lot of people — it's better to leave the country,” Tablada said.
There were 220,908 Customs and Border Protection “encounters” with Cubans from October 2021 to September 2022, which is the 2022 fiscal year. They include encounters with Cubans who have crossed the border illegally, those who entered legally using the CBP One app, those who were exempt from expulsion under previous immigration policy and a small number allowed in through a Biden parole program. In the 2023 fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, numbers fell to 142,352.
But Coast Guard interceptions of Cubans at sea rose in the first 11 months of the 2023 fiscal year, to a total of 6,967, according to the Migration Policy Institute, MPI, a Washington-based think tank that supports an immigration reform that includes legal migration pathways. Along with the interceptions of Cubans in fiscal year 2022, these levels of Coast Guard interdictions of Cubans have not been seen since the 1990s, said MPI spokesperson Michelle Mittelstadt.
- The Trump administration's designation of Cuba as a terrorism sponsor in January 2021 — just as Trump was leaving office — came as Cuba was reeling from the blow to tourism and business brought on by the pandemic.