US detains three Cubans after Rubio action

Washington, July 1 (IANS) Three Cuban nationals, including a former employee of a Cuban government-linked organisation sanctioned by the United States earlier this month, have been taken into federal custody after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their legal status, the State Department said.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the three were apprehended by federal agents this week after Rubio revoked their legal status.

According to the department, Carlos Antonio Lloga Dominguez, his wife and their son are now in federal custody pending removal from the United States.

The department alleged that Lloga Dominguez “spent more than a decade working as a foreign subversive for the Communist Cuban regime’s premier influence and intelligence front group in the United States.”

It said he spent more than 10 years employed by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP) and “has continued to maintain ties to the transnational communist subversion network throughout his time residing in our nation.”

The State Department said ICAP was designated for sanctions by Rubio under Executive Order 14404 earlier this month.

According to the statement, ICAP is “the central node in a sprawling Cuban intelligence and influence operation”, claiming to span more than 2,000 organisations across more than 150 countries.

The department also alleged that the organisation has maintained longstanding ties with Cuban intelligence.

It said ICAP’s current president, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, is “a convicted Cuban spy who served 15 years in US prison for his role in the infamous Wasp Network — a massive illegal Cuban spy ring uncovered in Florida in the late 1990s.”

The statement further alleged that, working in coordination with the Cuban government, ICAP maintains “an outsized footprint across the United States”, where it is accused of “trafficking in vile anti-American propaganda, cultivating pro-Havana regime activists and politicians, and lobbying federal, state and local politicians on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship.”

The department also alleged that ICAP facilitates ties between Havana and radical groups in the United States, using “America’s far left milieu as a vehicle to export Cuba’s Communist revolution to the United States.”

Reaffirming the administration’s position, the State Department said: “Under the Trump Administration, America will never become home for Cuban Communist regime thugs who peddle propaganda, run foreign influence operations, or seek to wage revolution against American civilisation.”

It added that, under Executive Order 14404, all ICAP property and interests in property are blocked and all transactions involving the organisation are prohibited unless specifically authorised by the Departments of State or Treasury.

The statement also warned that “any foreign aliens involved in ICAP’s anti-American subversion operations should expect to soon find themselves on an ICE deportation flight.”

The Trump administration has taken a tougher approach towards Cuba since returning to office, expanding sanctions, tightening immigration enforcement and increasing pressure on organisations it says act on behalf of the Cuban government. Washington has argued that such measures are aimed at countering foreign influence operations and protecting US national security.

–IANS

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