In a letter to President Joe Biden at the beginning of this year, senators and representatives from Massachusetts called on President Joe Biden to strike Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism List, in a rebuke of Trump-era decisions.
While President Barack Obama removed Cuba from that list in 2015 after a review from the State Department and Intelligence Community experts determined Cuba had not provided any support for international terrorism, President Donald Trump placed it back on the terrorism list in January 2021 without citing new facts to justify his decision, the delegation said. In all, five U.S. representatives and the senators from Massachusetts – U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (Both D) – have said it is time to reverse course once again, without delay.
“It was a vindictive action taken by the Trump Administration in January 2021 as it departed office,” the lawmakers wrote. “In fact, Cuba and the United States have a functioning bilateral cooperation agreement on counterterrorism.
The lawmakers charged the designation as a major cause of severe food shortages, medicine, fuel and other necessities afflicting the island nation. The designation comes with a number of restrictions and penalties that can be levied against international financial institutions and other entities that choose to work with Cuba, leading to an economic fallout. While the lawmakers noted there were multiple reasons for an overall economic crisis in Cuba, they maintained the actions by the Trump administration to be a significant contributing factor.
While under Congressional pressure the Biden administration subsequently suspended some U.S. regulations blocking food, medicine, remittances and other humanitarian assistance from Cuba in 2021, it has stopped short of Biden’s pledges on the campaign trail to return the U.S.-Cuba relationship to what it was during the Obama administration.
“There is no political or other policy argument that can justify the U.S. continuing to knowingly add to the suffering of the Cuban people,” the lawmakers said. “The unabated hardships facing all sectors of Cuban society are the driving force for tens of thousands abandoning their homes and migrating to the United States. It therefore runs counter to U.S. direct interests to continue the collective economic restrictions that result from Cuba remaining on the SSOT list.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) was also one of the 2022 leaders of a Congressional effort pushing Biden to review U.S. policy toward Cuba and take executive action for the sake of medical supplies and global vaccine production and distribution, although nothing ultimately came of that push.