Obama removes Cuba from the blacklist

As expected, US President Barack Obama appealed to Congress with the decision to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The presence of Cuba in this list prevented the restoration of embassies in Washington and in Havana.

Obama explained what criteria he was guided by when he made the decision.

“The government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism over the past six months. It assured us that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future,” the president said in the message.

Cuba was added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1982. At that time, Cuba supported an armed uprising in Latin America.

Last December, Obama announced his intention to normalize relations with Cuba. The president decided to use a new approach to ease tensions between Washington and Havana.

During the recent negotiations, Cuban officials complained about the unfair and outdated decision to place their nation on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Last week, the State Department recommended that Obama remove Cuba from the list, considering Havana to be no longer a sponsor of terrorist activities abroad.

"Circumstances have changed since 1982, when Cuba was initially designated as a state sponsor of terrorism due to its efforts to promote armed coup in Latin America," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement about the president's decision.

"Our world is very different from what it was 33 years ago," Kerry added.

The most successful sign of improvement in US-Cuban relations was the meeting of Obama and Raul Castro. They sat down at the negotiating table and discussed for an hour on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama. This is the first meeting between the US and Cuban leaders since 1959 of the year.

Congress has 45 days to jointly decide whether to support the president or not. But a senior official in the administration said that lawmakers are unlikely to be able to collect the votes needed to redefine the president’s veto.