WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to revoke the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism on Tuesday, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The officials were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be-publicly announced move. White House National Security Council officials declined to comment on the matter.
The outgoing Democrat’s one-term commitment is likely to be reversed as early as next week after newly elected President Donald Trump, a Republican, takes office and becomes secretary of state nominee. Marco Rubio takes the position of America’s top diplomat.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution it brought Fidel Castro in power, has long been in favor of sanctions on the communist island. Rubio will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing and is expected to touch on his Cuban roots in his testimony.
In the final days of Trump’s first administration, on January 11, 2021, the White House restored the indicationthat had been reversed during the period of rapprochement between Cuba and the United States during President Barack Obama’s second term. In doing so, the Trump administration cited, among other things, Cuba’s support for Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and its refusal to extradite Colombian rebels to Colombia, including its continued harboring of wanted Americans.
Trump’s move to designate Cuba was one of several foreign policy moves he made in the final days of his first term.
Human rights groups and activists, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have pressured the Biden administration to revoke the designation.
There was no immediate comment from Rubio or his office, but one of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, quickly denounced the Biden administration’s move.
“Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits,” Cruz said in a statement. “The Cuban regime’s terrorism has not stopped. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse the decision and limit the damage.”