The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden informed Congress on Tuesday of its intention to remove Cuba from the list of states that support terrorism. It is part of an agreement brokered by Catholic Church officials to release political prisoners in Cuba. Washington has also pledged to reduce economic pressure on Havana. The information was brought by the AP agency, writes TASR.
Senior officials in the Biden administration told the AP that Cuba will release “dozens” of political prisoners and others, according to the US, unjustly detained, before the inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday, January 20.
According to AP this the decision will most likely be reversed by the new secretary of state in Donald Trump’s administration. It will become so on Monday, January 20, if approved in the Senate Marco Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants. His family immigrated to the USA in the 1950s before Fidel Castro came to power. According to AP Rubio is one of the long-term supporters of US sanctions against the Cuban regime.
In the final days of Trump’s first administration, in January 2021, the State Department re-listed Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. It argued Havana’s support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and the decision by Cuban authorities not to extradite wanted Americans and Colombian rebels residing in Cuba.
Trump thereby reversed the decision of President Barack Obama, who removed Cuba from the list during his second term in office at a time of rapprochement between Cuba and the United States. Various activists, human rights groups and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have urged the Biden administration to remove Cuba from the list.
