Cuba an Ally for U.S. Coast Guard

Many U.S. politicians refer to Cuba as a national security threat to the United States, which is often used to justify sanctions against the island. But U.S. security forces, like the U.S. Coast Guard Service and others who work directly with their Cuban counterparts, consider Cuba an ally. “Thank you for the work you all do,“ one Coast Guard officer stationed in Miami told his Cuban counterpart during a joint counternarcotics operation in eastern Cuba to which Belly of the Beast gained access. While the Biden administration has embraced Trump’s hard-line policy toward Cuba— including designating Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, without presenting any evidence—experts say that the U.S. has quietly worked with Cuba in counter-terrorism efforts as well as the fight against drug and human trafficking. “There are gains in key security areas for the United States from cooperation with Cuba that frankly there aren’t with any other Latin American country,” said H