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)
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