Relief for Cuba from US Terrorist Designation, But for How Long?

Only days before he will leave office, President Joe Biden on January 14 finally removed Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism (SSOT). President Obama had previously removed the designation, in 2017. President Trump restored it on January 11, 2021, at the very end of his first term.

Cuba’s assignment to that U.S. list had constituted a major part of the U.S. system of economic blockade of Cuba, in effect for over six decades. The SSOT designation has contributed mightily to shortages of money, goods, and supplies in Cuba that add up to festering humanitarian crisis.

The designation requires that international financial institutions not use U.S. dollars in transactions involving Cuba. But dollars are the dominant currency in international monetary dealings. Consequently, the flow to Cuba of loans, payments on account, and agency funding from abroad has slowed to a trickle.

Removal of the SSOT designation comes after the Biden administration in May removed Cuba from the State Department’s short list of countries that it deems less than fully cooperative against violent groups.

Over the course of its four-year term, that administration faced a steady onslaught of demands that the SSOT designation be ended. They came from congresspersons, the United Nations, political advocacy groups worldwide, U.S. political activists, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and nations of the world, particularly in Latin America.

The refrain, cropping up repeatedly, was that President Biden could end the designation “with the stroke of a pen.” That did not happen until now. Appeals from Colombia’s government were central to the outcome, according to an informed source reporting to this writer.

President Biden took other actions. He announced that the U.S. government would no longer enforce Title III of the 1996 Helms Burton Law. Under this provision, U.S. citizens, Cuban émigrés among them, may appeal to U.S. courts to gain relief from the use by foreign individuals and companies of properties once belonging to their families, ones that had been nationalized by Cuba’s government. There had been no enforcement of Title III until President Donald Trump did so in 2019. The impact of enforcement has been to add precariousness to foreign investments in Cuba.

The Biden administration also eliminated measures put in force by the Trump administration in 2017 prohibiting U.S. tourists and organizations from paying for a wide range of specified services in Cuba. Their overall purpose had been to cut back on income received by Cuba’s government.

In announcing these new measures, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierrereferred to “ongoing dialogue between the government of Cuba and the Catholic Church.” She was suggesting that the latter had facilitated the Biden administration’s decision to end the SSOT designation.

In its reporting on the new development, Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry mentioned that Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and President Miguel Díaz-Canel had brought Cuba’s SSOT designation to the attention of Pope Francis, when they met with him in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The Ministry also indicated that  Díaz-Canel recently communicated with the Pope, informing him that, “in the spirit if the ‘Ordinary Jubilee’ of 2025” (during which universal pardon is celebrated), Cuba’s government would soon be releasing  553 prisoners charged with various crimes.

The Trump transition team did not immediately comment on the Biden administration’s announcement.  However, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proclaimed that “Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits … The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not ceased. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision.”

In a social media post, Florida Republican Representative Carlos Gimenez added that “President Biden is a pathetic coward… Come January 20th, there will be a new sheriff  in town and President Trump alongside Secretary of State [Rubio] will not only put [Cuba] back on the list but pulverize the regime once and for all!”

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