The Trump administration will put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism Monday, according to two senior State Department officials, overturning an Obama-era decision and making it harder for President-elect Joe Biden to manage to quickly revive diplomatic ties with Havana.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is expected to indicate that he is designating Cuba because the country still hosts American fugitives, including Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted in 1973 of murdering a New Jersey state official, and refuses a Colombian extradition request for members of the National Liberation Army in connection with a 2019 bombing involving 22.
Cuba only joins Syria, Iran and North Korea – countries more widely condemned for inciting terrorism – on the US list. Cuba was originally listed in 1982 but was removed by President Barack Obama in 2015 for trying to improve economic and diplomatic relations with the Caribbean nation.
Biden has indicated that he wants to revive Obama-era policies of easing economic and travel restrictions in the hope that closer ties and more capitalism will pave the way for democratic change in Cuba. That strategy could include reducing restrictions on travel, investment and remittances for the island state that are believed to cause disproportionate damage to Americans and ordinary Cubans.
Under President Donald Trump, the US labeled Cuba as part of a “Troika of Tyranny” with Nicaragua and Venezuela. His moves were popular with Cuban-Americans in Florida, a state that Trump won in reelection with the help of Cuban-American refugees, Venezuelan Americans, and other anti-communist Latino voters.
His government had been pondering the move to sponsor terrorism for months. Two senior State Department officials, who asked not to be identified when discussing internal deliberations, said politics played no part in the decision to re-designate Cuba and that several governments – including Obama’s – let made policy decisions about the island in their presidency. .
Why Biden wants to renew Cuba’s tires, but not too much: QuickTake
Officials said the process of getting Cuba back on the list was a lengthy one and if the US had wanted to play politics they would have re-designated Cuba before November’s presidential election, not after.
The government had already signaled in May that it could restore the designation for Cuba. That’s when officials announced that Cuba was back on a separate list of countries that were not fully cooperating in the US’s efforts to combat terrorism because of its refusal to extradite members of the National Liberation Army.
State sponsors of terrorism are countries that have “repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism”, according to the State Department. One of the officials said there is a legal precedent going back to George HW Bush’s presidency for maintaining a country on the terrorist harboring list, even if it does not actively support terrorist acts.
Cuba and the US, enemies after the late Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, began forging diplomatic relations in 2015 when Obama was president and Biden was vice president. The US eased trade for five decades embargo and took other steps toward normalization, although a complete end to US restrictions required an act of Congress.
Rich countries defy Trump with debt lifeline to ailing Cuba (1)
Despite burgeoning openings and increasing foreign investment since the 1990s, the Cuban economy remains heavily controlled by the government and the military.
During Trump’s tenure, he opened the door to lawsuits against companies taking advantage of properties seized by the government in Cuba, educational travel and cruises banned there, and restricted direct flights. Biden could move to take Cuba off the terrorist list, but a formal overhaul could delay the process by several months and rekindle the debate over Cuba’s communist leaders.