The Trump administration is reportedly going to put Cuba back on the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, a decision that, if officially announced, would be a complete reversal of President Trump’s Cuba policy against Obama and make it more difficult for the incoming Biden administration to mend fences with Cuba again.
Former President Barack Obama tried to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and officially took Cuba off the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries in 2015.
Upon taking office, President Trump reversed Obama’s tolerant foreign policy toward Cuba and tightened restrictions on American travel to and remittances from Cuba, while imposing sanctions on Cuban oil shipments from Venezuela.
President Trump’s hard-line Cuba policy is popular among the large Cuban-American population in south Florida and has allowed Trump to win Florida in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
The Trump administration’s planned decision to redesignate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is linked to Cuba’s long history of harboring U.S. fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders, and may invoke in its decision Cuba’s adherence to communist rule against Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro, Reuters sources said. The decision may also invoke the support of communist Cuba for Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
The designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism would mean a ban on economic aid to Cuba, a ban on U.S. arms exports, controls on military and civilian “dual-use” goods, and a requirement that international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, refuse to lend to Cuba.
Reuters said that many of these restrictions are already in place, some of which have been tightened by President Trump, and that the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, which has been in place for decades, can only be lifted by the U.S. Congress.
Reuters believes that putting Cuba back on the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries has heavy symbolic significance for the Cuban regime and additionally complicates any efforts by the incoming Biden administration to restore relations with Cuba to the Obama era.
During his campaign, Biden said he would quickly reverse Trump’s Cuba policy if he took office. But President Trump’s move could make Biden’s move to mend fences with Cuba more difficult.
Other countries on the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations are Syria, Iran and North Korea.
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