President Joe Biden is to remove the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a prisoner release deal, the White House said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards, Cuba announced it would release 553 prisoners detained for \u201cdiverse crimes\u201d. It is hoped these will include participants in anti-government protests four years ago.<\/p>\n
President-elect Donald Trump reinstatedthe country\u2019s terror designation in the final days of his first presidency in 2021, banning US economic aid and arms exports to the country.<\/p>\n
But on Tuesday, a Biden administration official said an assessment of the situation had presented \u201cno information\u201d that supported the designation.<\/p>\n
Cuba said Biden\u2019s move was a step \u201cin the right direction\u201d despite its \u201climited nature\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision puts an end to specific coercive measures that, along with many others, cause serious damage to the Cuban economy, with a severe effect on the population,\u201d the country\u2019s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of prisoners will \u201cgradually\u201d be freed following talks brokered by the Catholic Church, a separate statement read a few hours later.<\/p>\n
Details about the prisoners have not been announced \u2013 it was hoped the deal would prompt the release of some protesters imprisoned after large anti-government protests in Cuba over the nation\u2019s economic decline in 2021.<\/p>\n
Cuba currently sits alongside North Korea, Syria and Iran on\u00a0the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list.<\/p>\n
This means they are deemed by the US to have \u201crepeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Adding Cuba back to the list after its removal in 2015 by President Barack Obama, Trump citied the communist country\u2019s backing of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n
At the time Cuba called the move \u201ccynical,\u201d \u201chypocritical\u201d and an act of \u201cpolitical opportunism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Alongside prompting the prisoner release, this decision is also significant because it can be seen as a step towards normalising relations between Cuba and the US.<\/p>\n
This could pave the way for dialogue on other contentious issues.<\/p>\n
It could also help Cuba\u2019s dire economic situation, as some major banks and foreign investors have struggled to operate there legally.<\/p>\n
Biden is to notify Congress of his plans, which also include reversing Trump-era financial restrictions on some Cubans, a White House statement said.<\/p>\n
He will also suspend the ability of individuals to make claims to confiscated property in Cuba, the statement read.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether Trump will reverse this latest decision when he returns to office on 20 January.<\/p>\n
The president-elect\u2019s nominee as the next US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has long advocated for sanctions on Cuba.<\/p>\n
His family left the country in the 1950s before the communist revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Joe Biden is to remove the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a prisoner release deal, the White House said on Tuesday. Shortly afterwards, Cuba announced it would release 553 prisoners detained for \u201cdiverse crimes\u201d. It is hoped these will include participants in anti-government protests four years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}