Cuba thwarts ‘terrorist plot’ it says was ‘organized and financed from the US’

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Cuba has foiled an alleged “terrorist plot” which it claimed was “organized and financed from the United States.”

The country’s interior ministry said authorities carried out an investigation which led to the arrest of Cuban citizen Ardenys Garcia Alvarez, who had been residing in the US.

Alvarez entered Cuba illegally by sea with guns and ammunition and was arrested last December, according to the ministry.

The ministry said he was “the main perpetrator of these actions, which were planned on American soil.”

“[Alvarez] brought firearms and ammunition as part of a new recruitment plan to carry out violent actions in our country,” the ministry said in the state-run Granma newspaper on Sunday.

It said Alvarez entered the United States illegally in 2014.

The ministry said others implicated in the alleged plot were also arrested, but it did not specify how many people were detained.

The investigation “prevented the realization of plans conceived, directed and financed, once again, from the United States,” the ministry said.

Last December, Cuba published a list of foreign nationals it accused of being involved in promoting or planning “acts of terrorism,” including influencers, dissidents who reside in the US and a candidate for mayor of Florida‘s Miami-Dade County.

The list identified 61 people and 20 entities

In May, the US removed Cuba from its short list of countries that it deemed less than fully cooperative against violent groups.

The State Department said it had found that Cuban and US authorities were again working together on counterterrorism and other efforts.

The State Department had cited Cuba as a “not fully cooperating country” in 2022, saying that the country had refused to engage with Colombia in the extradition of members of the National Liberation Army group.

The US implemented a full-scale economic embargo on Cuba in 1962.

Former president Barack Obama lifted some restrictions in 2017. But Donald Trump’s administration redesignated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism” and hit the country with new sanctions.