The Government of Joe Biden in the United States ruled out this Thursday removing Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism to which it was placed by the previous Administration of President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
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This was expressed by the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, when asked during an appearance before the Foreign Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives. “We do not plan to remove them from the list,” he asserted after questioning by the Republican congresswoman for Florida María Elvira Salazar.
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The leader of US diplomacy explained that the law emanating from Congress establishes “very high criteria” for the Government to make a decision of this type.
“What I am committed to is that, if there were to be a review, it would be based on the law and the criteria that it establishes, which, as I said, have a very high bar,” Blinken said.
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Cuba’s inclusion on the list in January 2021 was one of the last decisions the Trump government made before leaving power.
The United States then justified the measure, which entails several sanctions, alluding to the presence on the island of members of the Colombian guerrilla ELN, who traveled to Havana to start peace negotiations with the Colombian Executive.
The island had been removed from the list in 2015, during the rapprochement stage promoted by then US President Barack Obama (2009-2017) and stopped by Trump, who during his tenure redoubled sanctions on Havana and stopped the “thaw”.
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The current Biden Administration has made some gestures towards the island, such as eliminating the limit on remittances to Cuba, but it is still far from Obama’s approach.
EFE
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