Cuba to free 553 prisoners after removal from US terror list

The White House said earlier that President Joe Biden was removing Cuba from the list in a deal that will see protesters imprisoned in the country released.

The move will likely be overturned after the return to office next week of Republican Donald Trump, who reinstated Cuba's terror designation in the final days of his first term of office in 2021.

"An assessment has been completed, and we do not have information that supports Cuba's designation as being a state sponsor of terrorism," a senior Biden administration official told reporters.

Cuba welcomed the move as a step in the "right direction," but lamented it was still under US sanctions in place since 1962.

The foreign ministry later announced that 553 people imprisoned for "diverse crimes" will be released.

Cuba blames the US blockade for its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by shortages of fuel, food, medicines and electricity.

Driven by blackouts and soaring food prices, thousands of Cubans took to the streets nationwide in July 2021, shouting: "We are hungry" and "Freedom!" in what was the biggest challenge to the government in years.

According to the Mexico-based Justicia 11J NGO, which focuses on human rights in Cuba, more than 1,500 people were arrested after those protests, of whom 600 were still in prison last December.

One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.
'Genocidal'
Analysts say the Covid-19 pandemic, which tanked tourism, and economic mismanagement by the government have contributed greatly to the poor state of the economy.

But Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel has described US sanctions as "genocidal" and said his country was prepared for "more difficult circumstances" after Trump's election.

Cuba was ready for "dialogue" with the new administration, Diaz-Canel said weeks after Trump was reelected.

The 78-year-old's first presidential term from 2017 to 2021 saw a tightening of sanctions against Cuba that were loosened during a period of detente under his predecessor Barack Obama.

The incoming president's allies immediately criticized Biden over Tuesday's announcement, with Ted Cruz -- a Cuban-American member of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee -- calling it a "rank appeasement of the Cuban regime."

"These moves do incredible damage to American national security and send a message to our adversaries that they can rely on outgoing Democrat administrations -- and wait out pressure from Republican administrations -- to continue engaging in terrorism and other aggression against Americans," Cruz said in a statement.

Trump has nominated Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American highly critical of communism and the left at large, to serve as his secretary of state.

A White House statement said Biden would also be waiving part of the so-called Libertad Act underpinning the US embargo of Cuba.

This means that nationals with claims to confiscated property in Cuba will no longer be able to file suit in American courts against persons that may be "trafficking" in that property.

The statement added Biden was rescinding a Trump-era policy called "National Security Presidential Memorandum 5" -- ending restrictions on financial transactions with certain Cuban entities.