Members of Congress criticized Trump’s inclusion of Cuba on the arbitrary and unilateral list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and urged Biden to revoke it.
Democratic congressmen from Massachusetts asked U.S. President Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the list of sponsors of terrorism, a designation issued at the end of Donald Trump’s administration, The Hill newspaper reported.
Members of Congress criticized Trump’s inclusion of Cuba on that arbitrary and unilateral list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and urged Biden to revoke it.
“It was a vindictive action taken by the Trump administration in January 2021 when it left office, and the policy should have changed by now,” Democrats Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley wrote in a December letter that was not made public until now, according to the newspaper.
“In fact, Cuba and the United States have a bilateral counterterrorism cooperation agreement in place,” the two congressmen stressed in the missive, also signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Representatives Seth Moulton, Lori Trahan and Stephen Lynch.
The Democrats insisted on Biden’s unfulfilled campaign promises on reviewing some of the coercive measures adopted by Trump (2017-2021) against Cuba.
“As a candidate for president, you promised to address a new engagement with Cuba and return to the policy initiated during the Obama-Biden administration, and we support you in this commitment,” they reminded the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Trump included the Caribbean country on that list during his last week in office, and this imposed severe restrictions on the island’s access to international financial markets, which limits its ability to do business with other countries and entities, which are forced to choose between trading with the U.S. or Cuba, the article added.
