It has happened again. Like Barack Obama did in 2015, now President Joe Biden has removed Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism (something that, hopefully, the Trump administration will correct). This political deja vú is another reason why analysts are characterizing the Biden administration as a sort of third term for Obama.

The signs that the Democratic president was going in that direction were clear. Seven months ago, he had already removed Cuba from the list of nations that do not cooperate in the fight against international terrorism.

Cuba was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1982. Why? Because of its long history of providing advice, shelter, communications, training, and financial support to guerrilla groups and individual terrorists.

The United States has demanded that Cuba extradite to Colombia soldiers from the narco-terrorist group National Liberation Army (ELN), with an international arrest warrant. When I lived on the island, it was common to see them in the neighborhoods of Cubanacán (formerly Biltmore) or El Vedado, either enjoying a bike ride or in cars that they drove like speedsters. They were always protected by some security device.

In August 2022, the leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro eliminated the arrest warrants against the ELN leaders, so Cuba had a perfect excuse to demand its removal from the list of sponsors of terrorism.

Has the ELN stopped being a danger to Colombians? No. Nothing has changed. What is revealed is how the socialists in power help each other to clean their faces before the international community.

On the other hand, Cuba has continued to give diplomatic and propaganda support to the Iranian regime and its satellite terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

In September 2024, Cuba held a high-level meeting with Lebanese officials, where it rejected what it called “attacks against Lebanon in the face of the dangerous Israeli escalation.” The Cuban diplomats were referring to an Israeli airstrike against Hezbollah rocket launching facilities in southern Lebanon and the sophisticated operation that detonated thousands of beepers held by terrorists from that Islamist group.

Furthermore, throughout 2024 and in the face of the advance of the Israeli army against Hamas positions in Gaza, the Cuban regime has supported the Islamists, investing resources in the state media system (the only legal one in the country) and organizing mass rallies in several cities. Many participants are forced to go to the latter, under penalty of losing salary incentives or school or work attendance that day.

Senior regime officials, such as the dictator Miguel Díaz Canel himself, have repeated the death tolls given by Hamas, as part of the propaganda operation.

There has also been diplomatic support. Castroism added Cuba’s name to the demand that South Africa launched against Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism, repeating, once again, Hamas propaganda.

The latter occurred almost at the same time that Biden removed the regime from the list of sponsors of terrorism — only a few hours later. It is perhaps the clearest way for the socialist State to react: give me everything, I’ll spit in your face.