By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department denied on Tuesday it was plotting violent attacks against Cuba, a day after the Communist-run island claimed Washington was seeking to foment unrest before the New Year.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry on Monday warned on social media of “plans by the State Department and intelligence community to increase subversive and violent attacks against Cuba in order to generate a social outbreak before the end of 2023.”
A State Department official rejected the idea.
“Allegations that the United States is encouraging violent actions against the Cuban government are absurd,” the official responded in an email to Reuters.
The Cuban government did not provide any concrete evidence of its claims of a U.S. plot.
Cuba last week published a list of more than 80 foreign nationals and entities it accuses of terrorism, including influencers, dissidents who reside in the United States, and a candidate for mayor of Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
On Saturday, Cuba said it had thwarted a terrorist plot hatched in neighboring south Florida that involved an armed man arriving on Cuban soil from the United States via jetski.
The State Department official called the list and allegations by Cuba an effort to belittle its own citizens abroad.
“These most recent allegations are the newest iteration of Cuban authorities’ efforts to belittle emigrants exercising their freedom of speech, including criticizing Cuba’s abysmal human rights record and relentless repression,” the official said.
The heated exchange underscores the icy relationship between Cuba and the United States, which has barely improved since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Biden last year partially rolled back some Trump-era restrictions on remittances and travel to Cuba but has not budged on Trump’s decision to designate the island nation a state sponsor of terrorism, saddling the country with fresh and severe sanctions.
A recent U.S. government report said Cuba also “grants safe harbor to terrorists,” charges that Havana denies.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Richard Chang)