The United States government informed Congress on Tuesday of its intention to withdraw the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced on Tuesday, as part of an agreement facilitated by the Catholic Church to release political prisoners on the island. .
Federal government officials, who spoke about the announcement on condition of anonymity, said “many dozens” of political prisoners and others considered by the United States to be unjustly detained would be released before President Joe Biden’s administration ends on the 20th. from January to noon.
The United States will also ease some economic pressures on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memo issued by then-President Donald Trump that hardened the United States’ stance toward Cuba.
The outgoing one-term Democratic president’s determination will likely be reversed next week after President-elect Trump takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has always been in favor of imposing sanctions on the island. Rubio will attend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearings and is likely to talk about his Cuban roots in his testimony.
In the final days of the Trump administration, on January 11, 2021, the White House reinstated the designation, which had been reversed during the period of rapprochement between Cuba and the United States during President Barack Obama’s second term.
In doing so, the Trump administration cited Cuba’s support for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and its refusal to extradite Colombian rebels to Colombia, among other issues, including its continued harboring of wanted Americans.
The move was one of several foreign policy moves Trump made in the final days of his first term.
Human rights groups and activists, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have been pressuring the Biden administration to withdraw the designation.
Congress and the incoming Trump administration will have the opportunity to review and potentially reverse Biden’s actions, although U.S. officials said the Biden administration had determined there was “no credible evidence” that Cuba was currently involved in supporting terrorism. international.
At the moment there were no comments from Trump’s transition team or Rubio or his office, but one of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Ted Cruz, quickly criticized the Biden administration’s move.
“Today’s decision is unacceptable based on their circumstances,” Cruz said in a statement. “The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not stopped. “I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage of the decision.”
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