The Cuban government yesterday rejected a US decision to keep Cuba on its blacklist of countries that allegedly support terrorism and accused Washington of sheltering the “real terrorists”.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the US does not have “the least moral authority or right whatsoever” to judge Cuba, citing the case of a Cuba-born former CIA operative wanted for a string of bombings and residing in Miami.

“We call on the US government to punish the real terrorists who now reside in US territory,” the ministry said in a statement published by local media.

The US State Department said last Thursday that despite Cuba’s public stance against terror and terror financing, there “was no evidence” that it “had severed ties with elements from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),” a leftist guerrilla movement at war with Bogota since the 1960s.

The Cuban government responded by calling on the US to prosecute the elderly former CIA operative, who is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba for several deadly bombings.

“America acts as if it has not permanently harboured the confessed criminal Luis Posada Carriles and refused to charge him with terrorism, despite having ample evidence,” added the Cuban government’s statement.

The Cuban and Venezuelan governments – close leftwing allies critical of US “imperialism” in Latin America – accuse Carriles of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people.

“He walks freely and with impunity through the streets of Miami after being acquitted in a sham court in El Paso, Texas,” the ministry said, referring to a Texas court that in April found Carriles not guilty on charges of perjury and immigration fraud.