Washington: President Joe Biden notified Congress of his intent to lift the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced, as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.
Senior US administration officials, who previewed the announcement on the condition of anonymity, said “many dozens” of political prisoners and others considered by the US to be unjustly detained would be released by the end of the Biden administration at noon on January 20.
The US would also ease some economic pressure on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memorandum issued by then-president Donald Trump toughening US posture toward Cuba.
“In taking these steps to bolster the ongoing dialogue between the government of Cuba and the Catholic Church, President Biden is also honouring the wisdom and counsel that has been provided to him by many world leaders, especially in Latin America, who have encouraged him to take these actions, on how best to advance the human rights of the Cuban people,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The determination by the outgoing one-term Democrat is likely to be reversed as early as next week after Trump, the Republican who is now president-elect, 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 long been a proponent of sanctions on the communist island. Rubio will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing and is expected to address his Cuban roots in his testimony.
Trump has also appointed Mauricio Claver-Carone, a former White House National Security Council aide and strong supporter of sanctions against Cuba, to be his special envoy to Latin America.
In the final days of Trump’s first administration, on January 11, 2021, the White House reinstated the designation, which had been reversed during the period of rapprochement between Cuba and the US during Barack Obama’s second term as president. In doing so, the Trump administration cited Cuba’s support for Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas
Maduro, and its refusal to extradite Colombian rebels to Colombia, among other issues, including its continued harbouring of wanted Americans.
The move to designate Cuba by Trump was one of several foreign policy moves he made in the final days of his first term.
About six months after Trump designated Cuba as a terror sponsor, the Biden administration levied new sanctions on island officials and the national revolutionary police after hundreds of Cubans were arrested during demonstrations in Havana and other cities to protest shortages, power outages and government policies. They were the first such protests since the 1990s.
Human rights groups and activists, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, have been pressing the Biden administration to lift the designation to ease the suffering of Cuban people who feel the impact of Cuba’s economic isolation.
Cuba’s government recognised the announcement and expressed its gratitude, although it deemed it as “limited”.
“Despite its limited scope, this is a decision that points to the right direction and is in line with the sustained and firm demand by the government and the people of Cuba,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a press release.
“The decision announced today by the US, rectifies, in a very limited way, some aspects of a cruel and unjust policy,” it added.
Congress and the incoming Trump administration will have the opportunity to review and potentially reverse Biden’s actions, though the senior US administration officials said the Biden administration had determined there was “no credible evidence” that Cuba was currently engaged in supporting international terrorism.
The Cuban foreign ministry said that the government is conscious that the incoming government in the US could reverse the decision but that it will remain “ready to develop a respectful relation with that country, based on dialogue and non-interference in the internal affairs of both countries, despite the differences”.
There was no immediate comment from the Trump transition team or from Rubio or his office but one of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, quickly denounced the Biden administration move.
“Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits,” Cruz said in a statement. “The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not ceased. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision.” Rep Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, criticised the move and predicted that Trump would quickly reverse Biden’s decision.
“President Biden is a pathetic coward,” Gimenez posted on X.
Biden in a national security memorandum issued on Tuesday certified that Cuba hasn’t provided any support for international terrorism during the last six months and had provided the administration with assurances that it wouldn’t support acts of terrorism in the future.
The move comes after the administration in May removed Cuba from the State Department’s short list of countries that it deems less than fully cooperative against violent groups.
