The Trump administration is considering returning Cuba to the list of nations the United States accuses of sponsoring terrorism, an apparent effort to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy plans, while offering a potential boost to competing Republicans. to the US Senate in Georgia, several family members with the effort said Wednesday.
Such a move would allow President Trump to boast that he has reversed an important Obama-era initiative and created potential difficulties for Cuba, the prospect of appealing to the president’s right-wing supporters and would be seen as a reward for Latinos who voted for him in Florida.
“It’s like a smelly bomb thrown at the wedding party: a farewell gift that is smelly but sturdy,” said John Kavulich, chairman of the US-Cuba Council for Trade and Economy, based in New York, who was briefed on action potential. “It is an easy sale. It is yet another box that Trump can mark where he can say he reversed something that Obama did. “
In what was hailed at the time as a historic achievement, President Obama in 2014 and 2015 ended half a century of Cold War hostilities with the Communist-ruled nation, restored diplomatic ties with Havana, eased travel restrictions between Cuba and the States United and became the first US chief executive to visit the island since 1926.
Obama also removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a list created by the State Department after regular assessments of a country’s actions, such as attacking civilians or destabilizing other nations. The State Department at the time said that while it maintained “significant concerns and disagreements over a wide range of Cuban policies and actions”, they no longer reached the level of state-sponsored terrorism.
Trump, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and other senior government officials have reversed many of Obama’s actions in accusing Cuba of being a tyrannical dictatorship, even after longtime leader Raúl Castro stepped down and was replaced by the president Miguel Diaz- Canel.
They claimed that Cuba is a promoter of an expanded definition of terrorism that includes anti-democratic treatment of its own citizens and ties to Iran. The government has presented similar charges against Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Being put back on the list would essentially make Cuba an international outcast and complicate efforts by American companies, including several US agricultural states, to trade with Havana or by American officials to negotiate with their Cuban counterparts.
The only other countries on the list are Iran, North Korea and Syria. Sudan was recently removed.
Representative Gregory W. Meeks (DN.Y.), the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Trump and his advisers were trying to “tie the hands” of the elected president. “They are doing politics on the back of the Cuban people,” said Meeks in an interview.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not address the issue of Cuba. However, she said the Biden government will issue a memorandum on the afternoon of the inauguration day to “freeze” controversial regulations and executive orders, especially those issued in the last weeks of Trump’s term.
Reversing Cuba’s terrorist designation is likely to be more difficult. The State Department, which is expected to be led by longtime Biden adviser Antony Blinken, will have to refute many of the Trump era’s arguments and reaffirm that Cuba is not a sponsor of terrorism.
The idea of blacklisting Cuba has been under discussion in the government for months, especially when Cuban falcon Mauricio Claver-Carone handled Latin American affairs at Trump’s National Security Council. Claver-Carone, an ally of Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Stepped down in September after Trump appointed him to head the Inter-American Development Bank, and the momentum for Cuba’s change seemed to wane.
US officials recently started promoting the action, according to people familiar with the debate, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal deliberations. The New York Times reported on the discussions on Wednesday.
Rubio is especially in favor of the proposal. In a recent article for the Miami Herald, the senator urged Biden not to return to Obama’s “concessions” to Cuba.
“Would Biden stay with the dissidents and continue the fundamental reforms of the Trump administration, which have financially damaged the regime and prioritized the demands of the Cuban people?” Rubio wrote. “Or would he return to the Obama administration’s failed policy of rewarding Raúl Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel with relief from sanctions and political legitimacy for decades of repressive behavior?”
Government critics said putting Cuba on the terrorism list seemed timely to help two Republican candidates that Trump supports in Georgia, where elections next week will determine which party controls the Senate. The change would allow the president and senators to publicize the cause of the fight against communism.
The Republicans Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have repeatedly labeled their Democratic opponents and the party they represent as socialists.
There has been no official announcement as to whether Pompeo, in his last 21 days as secretary of state, will finalize the decision. He has been relentless, however, in attacking Cuba, especially for his support for Venezuela and Iran.
Cuba did not expect official confirmation.
“I denounce Secretary of State Pompeo’s maneuvers to include #Cuba in the list of states that sponsor terrorism to please the anti-Cuban minority in Florida,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Twitter.
Ricardo Herrero, head of the Cuban Study Group, an American group of Cuban descendants that advocates better relations between the United States and Cuba, also criticized the measure. “If Cuba posed a real threat to the national security of the United States, this government would not be so happy to kick it like proverbial political football to reward its cronies,” he said on Twitter.
Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this report.