Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Mike Pompeo Vice Chairman of Intel Says Cyber Attack By Government Agencies ‘May Have Started Earlier’ Trump Administration May Put Cuba on Terrorism List: Pompeo Report Calls for Release of Chinese Journalist Jailed Over Coronavirus Coverage MORE considering placing Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Two US officials speaking with the Times said members of the State Department drafted a proposal to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, which Pompeo would have to sign with just three weeks remaining before the president-elect. Joe Biden
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The move – which the Times noted would serve as a “thank you” to Cuban Americans and other Florida anti-communist Latinos who helped President Trump
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While Biden could move quickly upon taking office to remove Cuba from the list, the Times reported that this could require a months-long formal review process.
When The Hill reached out, a State Department spokesperson said the agency “does not discuss deliberations or possible deliberations” on identifying terrorism.
The State Department defines a state sponsor of terrorism like a country that “has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism. ”
States given this designation are subject to four main categories of sanctions: restrictions on US foreign aid, a ban on the export and sale of defense, control of the export of dual-use items, and other financial restrictions.
There are currently only three countries on the terrorism list: Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The State Department removed Cuba from the list in 2015 under the Obama administration, normalizing relations between Washington and Havana for the first time since Cuba’s communist revolution in 1959.
In 2016, Obama became the first US president to visit the island state since Calvin Coolidge.
Cuba was first added to the terrorism list under the Reagan administration in 1982 after the country’s support of left-wing insurgents across Latin America.
However, relations between the US and Cuba have become increasingly tense under the Trump administration, with the State Department notify Congress in May that Cuba was one of the identified countries “Not fully cooperative” with the US counter-terrorism efforts in 2019, marking the first year that Cuba had been certified as non-cooperative since 2015.
During the 2020 election cycle, the Trump campaign mobilized fears among Cubans and others in Florida that Biden would not stand up to communism in Latin America, with Trump calling Obama’s deal with Cuba “terrible and misleading.”
Democrats on Tuesday condemned a possible designation of a state terrorism sponsor for Cuba, with Rep. Gregory Meeks
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“He’s trying to handcuff the incoming administration,” Meeks added.