"The U.S. first branded Cuba a sponsor of terrorism in 1982 because of its support for leftist rebels in Latin America, a region of the world in which successive American governments had supported a long line of right-wing dictators." "In truth, the sponsors of terrorism list maintained by the U.S. State Department always seemed to have been an instrument of American foreign policy — and domestic politics — more than an unbiased effort to punish all countries that support terrorism in one way or another."