Rubio escalates hardline policy toward Cuba, while Havana fails to honor prisoner release pledge
Trump’s decision to return the island to the list of countries sponsoring terrorism halted the release of the 553 detainees agreed to during the Biden administration
The U.S. government’s perks were short-lived: only the six days remaining in the Democratic administration after Joe Biden lifted certain sanctions on Cuba and then handed its future over to the Republicans on January 20. And as was to be expected, on his first day in the White House Donald Trump reversed what his predecessor had belatedly done: he put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism from which it was removed in exchange for the release of 553 prisoners, and announced new measures restricting any economic respite, as a way of reestablishing a tough policy toward the island.
