WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — The president of the United States, Donald Trump, today revoked the order executed just six days ago by his predecessor, Joe Biden, which excluded Cuba from the unilateral list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Trump, who has been in office for Monday, announced that he will annul at least 78 “destructive and radical executive actions” of the previous administration and stated that the measures will be “without effect” in five minutes.
On Jan 14, Biden made his decision, albeit late, that Cuba “should no longer be designated as a State sponsor of terrorism,” as confirmed by the White House in a statement related to the notification that the then president made to Congress.
He also issued a waiver for Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Liberty Act, for a period of six months and rescinded National Security Presidential Memorandum 5 of 2017 on policy toward Cuba to eliminate the so-called ‘restricted list’.
The measures were received then as a duty of basic justice towards the Caribbean country and as a step in the right direction, although the blockade remained in place.
In his first administration (2017-2021), Trump applied a policy of maximum pressure towards Cuba, which he reinforced with 243 additional measures.
Eight days before leaving the White House in 2021, the Republican included Cuba on the list of which it had not been part since 2015, a position that Biden maintained until the very end of his term.
The White House did not describe reasons for reversing Biden’s order or whether it expected the move to impact freed prisoners.
But new Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American staunchly opposed to the communist island’s government, told his confirmation hearing last week that he had “zero doubt” that Cuba belonged on the list.
Only three other countries are on the list of state sponsors of terror: Iran, North Korea and Syria, where longtime leader Bashar al-Assad was toppled last month. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
