United States adds Cuba back to list of state sponsors of terrorism
,,Just hours after taking office, Donald Trump signed a so-called “revocation” of former President Joe Biden’s decision on January 14 this year that would have removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, according to Reuters news agency.
Biden’s decree was part of a deal in which the government in Havana agreed to release 553 political prisoners, although only 88 people have been released so far. Hundreds of people were arrested following a series of protests in July 2021 against Cuba’s Communist Party, triggered by a shortage of medicine and food and the government’s poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The White House also released a list of ,,restricted entities’’ created during the first Trump administration. These Cuban entities, many of which have close ties to the leadership in Havana, are barred from certain financial transactions under U.S. law.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the revocation ,,arrogance and disregard for the truth’’ in a Facebook post, adding that ,,the legitimate and noble cause of our people will prevail and succeed again”.
He had previously praised Biden for making the ,,right decision’’, but continued to accuse the U.S. of waging ,,economic war” against the island, as the U.S. Cold War-era trade embargo against Cuba remained in place.
The Trump administration’s reason for reversing the policy was not immediately clear, but Republicans insisted that the former Biden administration had not convincingly justified removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.