US President Joe Biden intends to lift Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced on Tuesday, as part of a deal brokered by the Catholic Church to release political prisoners on the island.
Senior U.S. government officials, who reviewed the announcement on condition of anonymity, said “many dozens” of political prisoners and others deemed unjustifiably detained by the U.S. will be held by the end of the Biden administration on April 20. January would be released at noon.
The US would also ease some economic pressure on Cuba, as did a 2017 memorandum from then-President Donald Trump toughening Washington’s stance on Cuba.
Biden “acknowledges the wisdom and advice given to him by many world leaders, particularly in Latin America, who encouraged him to take these actions to best promote the human rights of the Cuban people,” the press said White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the government had informed Pope Francis that it would release 553 people convicted of various crimes. It said they would be released gradually while authorities consider legal and humanitarian options.
The ministry did not link her release to the U.S. decision, but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 declared by Pope Francis.”
Cuban authorities did not provide any information about the 553 people to be released.
It’s unlikely to last
The outgoing president’s resolve is likely to be reversed as early as next week, after President-elect Trump takes office and US Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio is named the country’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 supporter of sanctions against the island nation. Rubio will appear at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday and is expected to discuss his Cuban roots in his testimony.
Trump also named Mauricio Claver-Carone, a former White House National Security Council adviser and strong supporter of sanctions against Cuba, as his special envoy for Latin America.
In the final days of Trump’s first term, on January 11, 2021, the White House reinstated the designation, which had been reversed during the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States during President Barack Obama’s second term. The Trump administration referred, among other things, to Cuba’s support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and its refusal to extradite Colombian rebels to Colombia, including the continued accommodation of wanted Americans.
Biden-era sanctions
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 shortages, power outages and government policies. They were the first protests of this kind since the 1990s.
Human rights groups and activists, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are urging the Biden administration to revoke the designation to ease the suffering of the Cuban population, who are feeling the effects of Cuba’s economic isolation.
The Cuban government noted the announcement and expressed its gratitude, although it considered it “limited.”
“The decision announced today by the United States corrects, in a very limited way, some aspects of a cruel and unjust policy,” the State Department said in a press release.
“No credible evidence”
Senior U.S. government officials said the Biden administration has determined there is “no credible evidence” that Cuba is currently supporting international terrorism.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the government was aware that the new U.S. administration could reverse the decision but remained “ready to build a respectful relationship with this country.”
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, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, quickly condemned the move.
“Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits,” Cruz said in a statement. “The terrorism promoted by the Cuban regime has not stopped. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage caused by the decision.”
Biden certified in a national security memorandum released Tuesday that Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism in the past six months and has given the administration assurances that it will not support acts of terrorism in the future.
The move came after the administration in May removed Cuba from the State Department’s short list of countries it deems not fully cooperative with violent groups.
