The US government will remove Cuba from its list of countries sponsoring terrorismofficials familiar with the matter told the AP.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
White House National Security Council officials declined to comment on the matter.
Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision could be annulled in a few days, when Republican Donald Trump takes office as president of the United States and Marco Rubio becomes secretary of state.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has always been a proponent of sanctions against the island. Rubio will attend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearings and will likely talk about his Cuban roots in his statements.
In the final days of the first 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 leader 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 lift the designation.
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