Trump administration puts Cuba back on ‘sponsor of terrorism’ blacklist The Trump administration on Monday re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, in a transfer that hits the nation with new sanctions shortly earlier than President-elect Joe Biden takes workplace. 

 The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, introduced the step, citing particularly Cuba’s continued harboring of US fugitives in addition to its assist for the Venezuelan chief, Nicolás Maduro.  The designation is one of the most recent in a collection of last-minute strikes that the Trump administration is making earlier than Biden takes workplace on 20 January. 

 Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of President Barack Obama’s foremost overseas coverage achievements as he sought higher relations with the communist island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice-president. Ties had been primarily frozen after Fidel Castro took energy in 1959.  As he has with Iran, Trump has sought to reverse many of Obama’s choices involving Cuba. He has taken a tricky line on Havana and rolled back many of the sanctions that the Obama administration had eased or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015. 

Since Trump took the workplace, after a marketing campaign that attacked Obama’s strikes to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have been more and more strained. 

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