US President Joe Biden plans to lift Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced on Tuesdayas part of a contract organized by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.
Senior US administration officials, who previewed the news on condition of anonymity, said there would be “many dozens” of political prisoners and others the US believed to be unjustly held on release before the end of the Biden administration at noon on January 20.
The US would also reduce economic pressure on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memo issued by then-president Donald Trump strengthening Washington's position towards Cuba.
Biden “honors the wisdom and advice given to him by many world leaders, especially in Latin America, who have encouraged him to take these actions, in the best possible way on advancing the human rights of the Cuban people,” White House press. said secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the government told Pope Francis that it would release 553 people convicted of various crimes. They said they will be released gradually, as the authorities explore the legal and humanitarian options.
The ministry did not link its release to the US decision, but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025” announced by Pope Francis.
Cuban authorities did not say who among the 553 people will be released.
Unlike survival
The outgoing president's decision is likely to be reversed as early as next week after president-elect Trump takes office and US secretary of state-designate Marco Rubio to become the country's top diplomat.
Rubio, who left his family in Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been a supporter of sanctions against the island nation. . Rubio will appear before the US 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, as his special envoy for Latin America.
In the last days of Trump's first administration, on January 11, 2021, the White House reset the specificationwhich was reversed during the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States during President Barack Obama's second term in office. In doing so, the Trump administration cited Cuba's support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and its refusal to extradite Colombian rebels to Colombia, among other issues, including its to sustain Americans who wanted.
Sanctions from the Biden era
About six months later, the Biden administration imposed 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 about shortages, power outages and government policies. They were the first protests of this kind since the 1990s.
Human rights groups and activists, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, have been pushing the Biden administration to lift the designation to ease the suffering of affected Cubans. economic isolation of Cuba.
The Cuban government acknowledged the news and expressed gratitude, although they considered it “limited”.
“The decision announced today by the United States corrects, in a very limited way, some aspects of a cruel and unfair policy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement news
'Evidence is not credible'
Senior US administration officials said the Biden administration had determined there was “no credible evidence” that Cuba was currently involved in supporting international terrorism.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the government is aware that the incoming US government could reverse the decision, but that it “remains ready to develop a respectful relationship with that country.”
There was no immediate comment from Trump's transition team or from Rubio or his office, but one of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, denied it. move quickly.
“Today's decision cannot be taken on its merits,” Cruz said in a statement. “The terrorism unleashed by the Cuban regime has not stopped. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision.”
Biden, in a national security memo released on Tuesday, confirmed that Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism in the past six months and had given assurances to the administration that it would not support future acts of terrorism.
The move comes after the administration in May removed Cuba from the State Department's short list of countries it considers less than fully cooperating against violent groups.
