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 Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sat down at a Western
Hemisphere summit in Panama on Saturday for the first meeting of its
kind between U.S. and Cuban leaders in nearly 60 years.
Cuba’s communist government had said normal relations between the
two former Cold War foes would be impossible as long as it remained
on the U.S. blacklist. Obama ordered a review of Cuba’s status after
he and Castro announced a diplomatic breakthrough on Dec. 17.
Cuba was placed on the list in 1982 when it was aiding rebel
movements in Africa and Latin America, but Havana long ago ceased
supporting foreign insurgencies. Presence on the list, however, has
continued to limit its access to international banking and overseas
financial markets.
Foreign investors in Cuba said delisting the country would prove
positive for the Caribbean island's economy. Banks could legally do
business with Cuba while it was on the list but the regulations
proved onerous, leading 20 banks to stop doing business with the
Cuban government or Cuban interests in third countries over the past
18 months, Cuba said.
"The Cuban government recognizes the fair decision made by the
president of the United States to eliminate Cuba from a list that it
never should have been included on," Josefina Vidal, the Cuban
foreign ministry's chief of U.S. affairs, said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement welcoming
Obama's decision that "circumstances have changed since 1982,” when
Cuba was listed “because of its efforts to promote armed revolution
by forces in Latin America."
In his report to Congress, Obama certified that “the government of
Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during
the preceding six-month period,” and “has provided assurances that
it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.”
Congress has 45 days to consider Obama's decision before it takes
effect, but lawmakers cannot stop it unless both chambers approve a
joint resolution, a move that is highly unlikely.
Many of Obama's fellow Democrats hailed his decision and some
experts said it was long overdue.
But U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American lawmaker from south
Florida and newly announced Republican presidential candidate,
denounced it as a "terrible" decision, saying Cuba was helping North
Korea evade sanctions and harboring fugitives from American justice.
The fugitives include Joanne Chesimard, wanted in the slaying of a
New Jersey state trooper in the early 1970s.
Republican U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, another
Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida, accused Obama of "capitulating
to dictators."
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BANKS CAUTIOUS
Obama could have announced his intention to lift the terrorism
designation and move forward on restoring diplomatic relations at
last weekend's summit.
But U.S. officials privately said they saw the issue as leverage in
broader normalization negotiations.
Cuba’s removal from the list will ease certain economic sanctions on
the island, but the broader U.S. embargo on Cuba will remain in
place because only Congress can end it. Iran, Sudan and Syria remain
on the list.
Some experts said U.S. banks would remain cautious for now. "Banks
are certainly watching for further developments, but the Cuban
government has a lot more steps to take until the industry can take
action," said Rob Rowe, vice president of the American Bankers
Association.
The two countries have made headway toward an agreement on
embassies. A U.S. official expressed optimism but added, "We're
still not quite there yet." Among the unresolved issues is a U.S.
demand for freedom of movement for its diplomats.
Cuba's human rights record still draws criticism from Washington,
and Havana has shown little if any sign of political opening in the
one-party system.
“We will continue to have differences with the Cuban government,"
the White House said.
Geoff Thale of the Washington Office on Latin America, a private
group that promotes democracy in the hemisphere, said: "Taking Cuba
off the list of terrorist states is a sensible, and long-overdue
step."
Cuba was added to the list at the height of the Cold War when it was
aiding leftist insurgencies such as the FARC rebels in Colombia. The
most recent State Department report in 2013 also accused Havana of
providing safe haven to the armed Basque separatist group ETA, which
is now inactive and last year pledged to disarm.
Cuba is now hosting peace talks between the Colombian government and
the FARC.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Julia Edwards, Patricia
Zengerle, Douwe Miedema, Arshad Mohammed and Marc Frank; Editing by
Jonathan Oatis, Howard Goller and Ken Wills)
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