Cuba released 553 political prisoners on Tuesday after the Biden administration announced it was removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and taking other “goodwill” measures.
The Catholic Church was negotiating with the communist government over the release of prisoners. Most of them were imprisoned following unprecedented island-wide protests in July 2021. A brutal crackdown led to an initial arrest of more than 1,000 people. Many of them were sentenced to long prison terms of up to 30 years.
“I thank everyone 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,” wrote Cuban President Miguel Díaz -Canel on X. “With two “The other measures adopted had a high cost for the country and Cuban families.”
Before the Cuba announcement, a senior administration official told reporters that, in order to support the Catholic Church and facilitate the agreement, Biden would inform Congress that he was seeking to remove Cuba from the list of states supporting terrorism, as well as other actions.
“An assessment has been completed and we do not have information that supports the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,” the Biden official said.
President-elect Donald Trump designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism shortly before leaving office in January 2021, five years after being removed from the list by President Barack Obama. Biden’s actions can be reversed as soon as Trump takes office next week.
Cuban-American Republican Congressmen from Florida Mario Díaz Balart, Maria Elvira Salazár and Carlos Gimenez released a video on X, rejecting Biden’s measures and calling them “pathetic.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican whose father is Cuban, criticized Biden’s actions. “Today’s decision is fundamentally unacceptable,” he wrote in a statement. “The terrorism carried out by the Cuban regime has not stopped. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse this decision and limit the damage. »
In Cuba, residents of Havana welcomed the news about Biden’s actions.
“It’s definitely a good thing for our country because we would have more possibilities, more resources. It’s progress. One step at a time,” said bartender Dainerys Hernández.
Joel Rivera, a civil servant, agrees. “I think it’s a good decision. It is true that we need to be removed from this list, because we should not be on it in the first place,” he said.
In addition to removing Cuba from the list, the Biden administration will grant a waiver to Title Three of the Helms Burton Act, which allows the original owners of Cuban properties confiscated decades ago to sue foreign companies that use them. “traffic”.
In 2019, Trump was the first president not to waive Title III. Every president before him had waived the 1996 law, officially called the Cuban Freedom and Democratic Solidarity Act, every six months, fearing it would harm U.S. trade.
“We hope and anticipate that these measures announced today will provide very rapid relief to the dozens of Cubans who were arrested in connection with the July 2021 protests as well as their family members,” the Biden official said.
Biden is also easing some economic pressures on Cuba by repealing Presidential National Security Memorandum 5, originally put in place on June 16, 2017.
“Today’s actions demonstrate that President Biden’s Cuba policy, focused on achieving practical results on human rights in Cuba, will pay dividends for the Cuban people,” the senior Biden administration said .
Speculation is rife about Trump’s foreign policy, particularly because of the potential influence of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban American who is Trump’s choice for secretary of state . Rubio, a foreign policy hawk, has consistently advocated a tough policy on Cuba.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the architect of some of Trump’s hardline Latin America policies during his first administration, was chosen as special envoy for Latin America.
