The United States officially removed Cuba from its list of countries supporting terrorism in 2015, as part of a brief rapprochement explosion during the Obama years. The renewed designation could throw a string in President Joe Biden’s potential plans for diplomacy with the island, and try to send Cuban Americans and other voters who helped empowering President Donald Trump to win in Florida even though he eventually lost the election.
Asked for a response to the Times report, a State Department spokesman told CNN “we will not consider any consideration or possible consideration of assignments.” The White House declined to comment. past the record when CNN reached it.
The consideration makes up a relationship between the U.S. and Cuba that has reached its lowest point in decades, as the incoming Biden administration and the Cuban government view it as which will be rebalanced after four years of honors from the Cold War era. Increased sanctions by the Trump administration and the turmoil of the tourism industry with the coronavirus pandemic have already affected the island’s troubled economy.
It is not yet known whether Pompeo will approve the plan, but Biden’s administration may delay the move months, the Times reported. Designation as a state supporter can encourage terrorist sanctions including “restrictions on U.S. foreign aid; a ban on export and defense sales; specific controls on exports of dual-use products; and financial restrictions etc., “according to the Department of State.
U.S. officials told the Times that the proposal to rename Cuba the list of terrorists came from the State Hemisphere’s Bureau of Western Affairs – as opposed to its Bureau of Counterterrorism, which would normally be heavily involved in such a move. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s former foreign policy adviser, told the Times that the separation from a standard planning protocol is “a sign that they know they can’t get Cuba on the list on merit.”
Relations between Cuba and the United States began to decline in 2017, when the Trump administration not only punished economic sanctions on the communist-run government but blocked the permission of its citizens. USA travel to the island. The administration also effectively suspended legal payments sent from Cuban Americans to family members in Cuba and suspended a wide range of other policies since the Obama era, including allowing cruise ships to USA visit the island and Major League Baseball to recruit Cuban players.
Recent relations between the two countries have been consistently strained. Earlier this month Pompeo announced that the US was putting Cuba as well as the Comoros, Nicaragua and Russia “on a special watch list for governments that have engaged or suffered.” serious violations of religious freedom. ‘”
In September, Trump announced a new series of economic sanctions on Cuba that banned U.S. citizens from buying Cuban cigarettes as well as rum and staying at Cuban-owned hotels on the island. And in May, the State Department found that Cuba was among four nations “not fully cooperating” in efforts against America last year.
Republicans have already opposed a policy expected by the Biden administration in the region, with Sen. Marco Rubio after questioning the turn of US policy towards Cuba.
“I think it would be a mistake, in fact, to go back to a policy that did not deliver its intended impact,” Rubio told NBC 6 earlier this month. and the Cuban regime benefited, but little changed in the daily life of the Cubans whether for their freedom or wealth. ”
CNN’s Jenny Hansler, Patrick Oppmann, Maegan Vazquez and Philip Wang contributed to this report.
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