Yesterday, the Biden administration surprisingly announced that a decision had been made to remove Cuba from the “state sponsor of terrorism” list, in coordination with the Catholic Church which would allow for the release of “political prisoners” held in Cuba. In January of 2021, just a few days before the end of the Trump administration, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added Cuba to this list without any justification, chortling he would “strangle” Cuba with this plus more sanctions he added on to existing ones. Aside from Cuba, only Syria, North Korea and Iran were on the list. The White House issued a very brief statement June 14 announcing the decision.
Why take such action now? For the past four years many heads of state, particularly in Ibero-America, human rights organizations, the United Nations and many international institutions have urged Biden to take Cuba off the list and provide its people relief from the economic hardship they’ve suffered from sanctions included in the pro-terrorist designation.
