The Biden administration expects to lift the “terrorism” designation on Cuba: report | Joe Biden News

With less than a week left in office, US President Joe Biden is expected to revoke Cuba’s designation as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” according to anonymous sources familiar with his plans.

The Associated Press news agency broke the story on Tuesday, citing US officials. But the move is likely to be a symbolic measure rather than a permanent policy.

With President-elect Donald Trump scheduled to take office on January 20, the decision could be quickly reversed under the next administration. However, the Biden administration went ahead and notified Congress of its intention.

A White House official told AFP: “The assessment has been completed, and we have no information to support the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.”

Meanwhile, Cuban officials hailed the announcement as long overdue. On social media, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described Biden’s actions as “positive” but “limited” in their effectiveness.

“Cuba should never have been included in the arbitrary list of states sponsoring terrorism,” he added. books. “This designation was arbitrary and politically motivated and had an extremely severe impact on the Cuban population, harmed the economy, created resource scarcity and encouraged immigration to the United States.”

However, this is not the first time that the designation against Cuba has been revoked and re-imposed. Republicans quickly announced their intention to fight change.

“Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Cuban-American lawmaker, said in a statement to the media.

“The Cuban regime’s terrorism has not stopped. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse the decision and limit the damage resulting from it.”

Cold War politics

Cuba was first designated a “state sponsor of terrorism” in 1982, under conservative leader Ronald Reagan.

The US State Department explains on its website that Cuba was placed under sanctions because of its “long history of providing advice, safe haven, communications, training, and financial support to guerrilla groups and individual terrorists.”

The classification took place during the last decade of the Cold War. Diplomatic relations between the two countries had long been severed by that point, largely due to Cuba’s close ties with the former Soviet Union, the United States’ Cold War adversary.

Cuba had also escaped the decades-long US trade embargo by that point.

However, its designation as a “state sponsor of terrorism” has further isolated the Caribbean nation, limiting its ability to engage in financial transactions with US-based institutions and preventing it from receiving US assistance.

In the period leading up to Tuesday’s announcement, there were only three countries besides Cuba that had been designated as “state sponsors of terrorism” in the United States. These countries include North Korea, Iran and Syria.

Back and forth

But Biden’s decision reflects the decision of his close Democratic ally, the former president Barack Obama.

Biden served as Vice President during Obama’s two terms, including 2015, when his administration followed…Melting“In the United States’ relationship with Cuba.

In April of that year, Obama announced that he would remove Cuba from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” thereafter Meetings With then Cuban President Raul Castro.

At the time, Obama assured Congress that Cuba “has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.”

A few months later, in July 2015, Obama took another step forward and announced that the United States would Restoring official diplomatic relations With Cuba for the first time since the 1960s.

“Instead of supporting democracy and opportunity for the Cuban people, our efforts to isolate Cuba despite the best intentions have increasingly had the opposite effect: entrenching the status quo and isolating the United States from our neighbors in this hemisphere,” Obama said at the time. “We should not be imprisoned by the past.”

He noted that Cuba is located less than 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the coast of Florida.

But when Trump succeeded Obama as president in 2017, he took a more hawkish approach to foreign policy, including… Penalties On Cuban products.

On January 12, 2021, in The dwindling days From his first term Trump He put Cuba back on the list From “state sponsors of terrorism”.

“With this action, we will once again hold the government of Cuba accountable and send a clear message: The Castro regime must end its support of international terrorism and subversion of American justice,” Trump’s Secretary of State at the time, Mike Pompeo, said in a statement. statement.

He accused Cuba of “feeding, sheltering and providing medical care to murderers, bomb makers and kidnappers” for decades.

Meanwhile, the Cuban government. criticize Change as “hypocrisy” and “political opportunism.”

Political bloc

After Trump was re-elected to a second term in November, there was speculation that Biden himself could make a similar move, using the final days of his presidency to reverse Trump’s decision.

On November 15, for example, a group of Democratic representatives, led by outgoing lawmaker Barbara Lee, sent a letter to the Biden White House urging “immediate action” to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Cuba.

The letter stated the toll Hurricane Rafael On the island, as well as the country’s dilapidated energy infrastructure, which has led to frequent floods power failure. Since 2021, Cuba has also seen Registration number of citizens leaving its borders, in response to economic instability.

“The situation not only causes enormous suffering to the Cuban people, but also poses serious risks to U.S. national security interests,” the letter said. “If left unaddressed, this crisis is certain to increase migration, overwhelm U.S. border management systems, and completely destabilize an already tense Caribbean region.”

By removing Cuba from the “state sponsor of terrorism” list, the letter writers noted that more oil resources could reach the island, thus “facilitating access to energy and economic relief for the Cuban people.”

But Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida denounced such a proposal, calling it an “unacceptable risk.”

His state has a large population of Cuban refugees who fled repression and economic instability in Cuba during the latter half of the 20th century – and who constitute a strong Republican-leaning voting bloc.

“Calls made by communist sympathizers in the Democratic Party at the 11th hour of the Biden administration for President Biden to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism are not only ignorant, but dangerous,” Scott said in a statement to the Florida Phoenix newspaper. .

Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio, is a descendant of Cuban immigrants and has also criticized efforts to undo restrictions on the island’s government.

He previously described Obama’s efforts to normalize relations as “Unilateral concessions“.