Cuba responded to Washington’s declaration on Tuesday that it would take the communist nation off its list of state sponsors of terrorism by announcing that it would release 553 inmates.
Earlier, the White House announced that President Joe Biden was taking Cuba off the list as part of an agreement that would free demonstrators who were detained there.
The action will probably be reversed when Republican Donald Trump, who restored Cuba’s terror designatio n in the closing days of his first term in 2021, takes office again next week.
“An assessment has been completed, and we do not have information that supports Cuba’s designation as being a state sponsor of terrorism,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Cuba praised the action as a step in the “right direction,” but bemoaned the fact that it was still subject to 1962-era US sanctions.
Later, the foreign ministry declared that 553 prisoners who had been detained for “diverse crimes” would be freed.
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