Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering whether to sign off on a proposal designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to a report.
News of the proposal came Tuesday from the New York Times, which reported that the move would serve as a gesture of gratitude to Cuban Americans and other Latinos in Florida who backed President Trump.
In his capacity as the nation’s top diplomat, Pompeo gets to decide whether to move forward with the designation, which is currently only applied to just three nations: Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The Times did not say whether he had made a decision. Still, the clock is ticking, as only three weeks of the Trump administration remain.
The outgoing secretary of state has been working overtime to secure Trump administration policies before his successor takes over on Jan. 20, issuing a flurry of sanctions against Iran and China — potentially complicating matters for President Biden’s relationships with those nations.
In terms of Cuba policy, Biden has pledged to undo the Trump administration’s efforts, which he said in a September interview with a local Miami station “inflicted harm on Cubans and their families.”
“The crackdown on Cubans by the regime has gotten worse under Trump, not better,” the then-Democratic candidate said at the time.
Cuba was originally placed on the state sponsors of terror list in the early 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. It remained there until President Barack Obama removed it 2015, normalizing relations with the Communist nation.
The move infuriated a swath anti-Communist Cuban Americans — many of whom carried Trump to victory in the state of Florida in November.
During the Trump administration, the US has implemented a series of travel restrictions on the country, as well as banned purchases of rum and tobacco, two of its major exports.
In May of this year, the State Department accused Cuba of failing to fully cooperate with US counterterrorism efforts.
Pompeo has also accused Cuba of working with Russia to protect Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro as the US was actively working to remove him from power.
Speaking to CNN in April 2019, he called Cuba’s support for Maduro “unacceptable.”
A State Department spokesperson could not immediately be reached by The Post for comment.
In a statement to the Times, a spokeswoman said the agency does not discuss “deliberations or potential deliberations” regarding terrorism designations.