In a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, they called on the administration “to loosen some restrictions on Cuba before handing over the reins of US diplomacy to President-elect Trump.”
The letter, signed, among others, by the former head of the Washington mission in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, and former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, urges the outgoing administration to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, increase humanitarian aid to the country and to streamline rules for Cuban nationals to access the U.S. financial system.
We also believe that current US policy “has exacerbated Cubans’ hardship, and thus we respectfully request that you take a series of actions in the remaining weeks of your administration to help alleviate these challenges.
Such a request was made “in the US national interest and in support of the Cuban people.”
Trump included Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List in the last weeks of his first term (2017-2021), which left Biden with the option of whether or not to keep Cuba within that designation.
“As many of us have said publicly, there is no credible evidence that Cuba sponsors international terrorism. The designation has hindered Cuba’s access to international finance, reduced tourism revenues to pay for imports of food, fuel and medicine and obstructed the arrival of humanitarian relief,” the officials wrote.
“Our closest allies in the region have repeatedly requested we remove this designation to ameliorate the regional impacts of surging Cuban migration, and we are confident the United States will be applauded worldwide for making this fact-based determination,” stressed the letter, quoted by the Hill newspaper.
On December 17, 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced that the United States and Cuba would resume diplomatic relations, but a decade later, far from progress, there is regression.
Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that he did not anticipate any change in Washington’s policy on Cuba before President Biden concludes his term.
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