President Biden will remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, U.S. officials announced on Tuesday, as a part of a deal that is expected to free protesters jailed during a sweeping 2021 crackdown by the Communist government.
The decision by Mr. Biden is the latest in a number of environmental, immigration and foreign policy decisions taken in the final days of his presidency before President-elect Donald J. Trump returns to the White House. Removing Cuba would typically raise expectations of normalized relations between Washington and Havana.
But Mr. Biden’s decision is only the latest in a series of conflicting U.S. approaches to Cuba by different administrations. The Obama administration made the decision to remove Cuba from the list. But days before Mr. Trump left office in 2021, his administration placed Cuba back on it.
Mr. Biden’s move could help Cuba’s battered economy. Major banks had stopped doing business with Cuba because it was too much trouble to make sure that the country satisfied all the requirements to legally do business there.
It is unclear if Mr. Trump will reverse Mr. Biden’s decision.
The U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview Mr. Biden’s action, said the United States was removing Cuba from the list as part of an effort, pushed by the Catholic Church, to free jailed protesters.
They were detained after the government imposed a brutal crackdown following one of the largest demonstrations in Cuba since the Communist government took power roughly six decades ago by protesters angry over the nation’s spiraling economic decline.
Human rights groups say some of those arrested during and after the protests have been tortured and that many have been sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials.
Many experts have long criticized Cuba’s inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“The statute that creates the terrorism list specifies giving material support to terrorists or harboring terrorists who are actively engaged in terrorism while you are harboring them,” said William LeoGrande, a Cuba expert at American University. “Cuba just hasn’t done those things.”
Several U.S. fugitives do reside in Cuba, but they should not count because they were Americans, were involved in politically motivated violence in the United States, and were not international terrorists, Mr. Leogrande said.
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