Biden removes Cuba's designation as state sponsor of terrorism
JAN. 14, 2025 / 9:15 PM
By Sheri Walsh
Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The Biden administration removed Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism on Tuesday, reversing the Trump administration's 2021 policy less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office and prompting Cuba to release hundreds of political prisoners.
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"I thank all those who contributed to the decision announced today by the United States to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, where it should never have been and which, together with two other measures adopted, has had a high cost for the country and Cuban families," Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez wrote Tuesday in a post on X.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also applauded the move. "The decision to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list reflects a necessary alignment of policy with facts," Meeks said in a statement Tuesday. "This shift is a clear demonstration that sanctions, when used as a policy rather than a targeted tool, fail to bring about change."
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The Trump administration gave Cuba the designation as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 2021, shortly before Biden took office.
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https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/01/14/2341736905489/
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JANUARY 15, 2025 1:28 AM ET
By
The Associated Press
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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.
The U.S. officials said the Trump transition team had been informed of the action before it was announced by the Biden White House.
Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump's pick to serve as national security adviser, previewed a snap back to the previous U.S. policy, but signaled approval for the arrangement. "Look. anything that they're doing right now we can do back, and no one should be under any illusion in terms of a change in Cuba policy," Waltz told Fox News on Tuesday. "We don't like it, but again, if people are going free, then that's what it is for now."
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https://www.npr.org/2025/01/15/nx-s1-5260690/biden-cuba-terror-designation-pope
