House Republicans Call for Keeping Cuba’s Terrorism Designation
Four House Republican Cuban-Americans urged the Biden administration March 8 to retain Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, saying the label and its accompanying sanctions remain warranted.
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“The regime jails, beats & murders peaceful protesters & political opponents, harbors terrorists & cop-killers, helped spread communism across South America & allows our adversaries to operate spy bases 90 miles from our shores,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York tweeted.
Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, all of Florida, and Malliotakis made similar comments at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building.
The lawmakers made their plea less than two months after Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, urged the administration on Jan. 18 to end the three-year-old designation, saying it lacks merit and has further entrenched the current Cuban regime (see 2401190012).
The State Department imposed the terrorism designation in January 2021 near the end of the Trump administration, saying 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).