Skip to main content
Campaigners welcome Cuba's removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism
The American embassy in Havana, Cuba, January 14, 2025

CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed the announcement that the United States has removed Cuba from its arbitrary list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

A statement by President Joe Biden on Tuesday night said: “The US maintains as a central objective of its policy the need to achieve greater freedom and democracy, greater respect for human rights and greater freedom of enterprise in Cuba. 

“To achieve these objectives, practical engagement with Cuba and the Cuban people will be necessary, going beyond what is described in the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-5) and taking into account recent developments in Cuba and the changing regional and global context.”

The White House said the new circumstances meant that it had decided to revoke NSPM-5 and said lawsuits relating to confiscated property in Cuba can no longer be filed in US courts.

The memorandum also drops rules that prohibit financial transactions with some Cuban entities. 

As then-president Donald Trump left office in January 2021, he added Cuba to the list, which it had been removed from by president Barack Obama in 2015.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said: “I thank all those who contributed to the decision announced today by the United States to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, where it should never have been and which, together with two other measures adopted, has had a high cost for the country and Cuban families.”

The US-based People’s Forum said in a statement that the removal of Cuba from the list had caome about as a “result of relentless efforts by activists and organisations over the past several years.”

But it added: “The US continues to uphold a strangling economic blockade on Cuba, which intentionally generates scarcity of essential items on the island.”

US journalist Eugene Puryear told the Morning Star that the decision this was “a victory for the Cuban people who have suffered deep harm from this particular tightening of the blockade. 

“Cuba never should’ve been on the list in the first place.”

Tricontinental Institute for Social Research director Vijay Prashad condemned the Biden administration for waiting until “its last week to do something that it had said it would do before its election.”

Black Agenda Report executive editor Margaret Kimberley said: “Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, is representative of the Cuban exile community, who are committed to the destruction of the revolution. 

“The people of Cuba are used as playthings of imperialism with no human rights that the US is bound to respect.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 1, 2025
Middle East / 1 June 2025
1 June 2025

Israeli military accused of killing at least 40 Palestinians near aid distribution site in Rafah

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, May 23, 2025
Middle East / 29 May 2025
29 May 2025

Despite internal pressure over the Gaza genocide, Narendra Modi’s government has deepened relations with Tel Aviv. ROGER McKENZIE explores the geopolitics behind these strengthening links

Similar stories
A man walks past a poster of late Cuban President Fidel Cast
Features / 24 January 2025
24 January 2025
Outgoing president Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the list less than a week prior, a long-awaited move that he committed to in his final days in office
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez gives a press confere
World / 16 January 2025
16 January 2025