Lawmaker Calls for Removing Cuba’s Terrorism Designation
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee urged the Biden administration on Jan. 18 to end Cuba’s “baseless, extremely harmful” designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
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The 3-year-old designation, which resulted in a wide range of sanctions, “does not have any merit and has isolated Cubans from the global financial system, further entrenching the current regime,” Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said at a hearing on Cuba.
Eric Jacobstein, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, demurred when asked by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., why the administration hasn't removed the designation.
“U.S. law establishes specific statutory criteria for rescinding a state sponsor of terrorism designation,” Jacobstein testified. “Any future review of Cuba’s status, should one occur, would be based on the law and criteria established by Congress.”
When the State Department imposed the terrorism designation in January 2021 near the end of the Trump administration, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba had broken its commitment to stop supporting terrorism, which was a condition of the designation removal that the Obama administration implemented in 2015 (see 2101110041).
Also during the hearing, Castro called for ending the long-time U.S. economic embargo with Cuba, saying it has failed to usher in democratic reforms and has hurt the lives of ordinary Cubans. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., countered that expanding economic ties with Cuba would only enrich the Communist government.
The hearing generated fireworks early on when subcommittee Chairwoman Maria Salazar, R-Fla., agreed to let one non-committee member, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., but not another, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., join the hearing. Salazar said Lee wasn't welcome because she supports Cuba’s Communist government. Subcommittee Democrats blasted the move as suppressing free speech, and Wasserman Schultz protested by refusing to participate in the hearing.