This Monday, Donald Trump revoked the order of January 14 with which former President Biden removed Cuba from the US list of states that promote terrorism.
Biden had signed that executive order less than a week after leaving power. He made this decision, he said, to promote the release of several Cuban prisoners as part of a process that was mediated by the Vatican.
That same day, Cuba announced the release of 553 people “punished for various crimes.”
Biden had also suspended the ability of US citizens to sue in US courts for the expropriation of their properties in Cuba and lifted some financial sanctions.
Biden Administration will remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism
The inclusion of Cuba on the list, in January 2021, was one of the last decisions that Trump made before leaving power in his first term (2017-2021).
Cuba had been part of the list since 1982, but it left in 2015, during the rapprochement stage promoted by the then US president Barack Obama (2009-2017) and stopped by Trump, who during his first term redoubled the sanctions on Havana and stopped the “thaw”.
In his nomination hearing as Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was just confirmed by the Senate, had declared last week that he had “zero doubts” about Cuba being a country that promotes terrorism.
When the island was removed from that list, the Cuban Government described Washington’s announcement as a “decision in the right direction” – although limited.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) stressed that it was a “very limited” step regarding a “cruel and unjust” policy and stressed that “the economic war remains.”
EFE/OnCuba.
