Cuba – US to resume international visa issuance

The U.S. embassy in Cuba will begin issuing visas on a limited and gradual basis after more than four years due to the withdrawal of most embassy staff from Havana, embassy business manager Timothy Ziga-Brown said Thursday (3). .

“We are pleased to announce that the US Embassy in Havana will launch a limited resumption of some immigrant visa services as part of a gradual expansion of the embassy’s operations,” the ambassador said without specifying a date.

In September 2017, the Legion cut its staff in September 2017, when Donald Trump’s Republican administration argued that mysterious health events, described as Sonic attacks, had affected its diplomats in 2016 and 2017 and then reported to other embassies around the world.

For Cubans, closing the embassy was a real blow, making it a barrier to obtaining a US visa and forcing them to travel to a third country, such as Colombia and Guyana, to apply for the document.

Giga-Brown explained that, in principle, the embassy will only schedule immigrant visa interviews for those who have submitted a complete documentation, but during the transition period, Georgetown in Guyana will be the “main place of processing for applicants” for visas. .

In addition, the embassy in Havana will continue to provide essential services to U.S. citizens and emergency visas to non-immigrants, the official said.

In the streets of Havana, people were waiting for the news. Interruption of embassy services “affected many economically” because “visas were obtained in Guyana”, said 48-year-old Nlida Bartoln. “It’s good to get here, Cubans do not have to spend so much money”, thinks 98% of Cuban people are interested in advertising.

The announcement was welcomed by Gregory Meeks, chairman of the US House of Representatives on Foreign Affairs. Now a Democrat deputy has tweeted that “Cubans can apply for a visa without leaving the country.” “I applaud this decision and urge President Joe Biden to remain committed to the Cuban people.”

– Economic Crisis –

Under current immigration agreements, the United States must issue 20,000 visas annually to immigrants from Cuba. At a time when the island is facing its worst economic crisis in nearly 30 years as a result of epidemics and US sanctions, large numbers of Cubans have chosen to do so via Central America to reach the US border.

Cuban political scientist Rafael Hernandez points out that the number of undocumented Cubans in the United States will increase from 21,000 in 2019 to 40,000 in 2020. With Trump’s visit to the White House in January 2017, diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States cooled, and after the boom with his predecessor Barack Obama, relations resumed in 2015 and 1961.

The Cuban government hoped that the situation would improve when Joe Biden took office in 2021, but that did not happen.

– ‘No sign of progress’ –

Hernandez explained that the opening of the embassy had nothing to do with the continuation of Obama’s politics, which was a “reversal of the atrocities” committed by Trump affecting Cubans living in the United States.

Michael Schifter, head of the Center for Inter-American Dialogue Analysis, agrees that “it would be a mistake to interpret this as the beginning of a significant opening for the island.” This is a decision that will be supported by both Republicans and Democrats, he said, adding that “there is no political cost to the Biden administration.”

Schifter reckons that “it is difficult to imagine further changes in the US government regarding Cuba” as the Democrats are likely to lose control in both houses of Congress in the midterm elections in November.

Rafael Herndes regretted that Washington acted as if nothing had happened, and Sonic did not mention the attacks again. “They have not corrected, or acknowledged, anything they have done that violates not only the immigration agreement, but also the interests of the Cuban people,” he said.

“The safety of our staff is very important,” an embassy official told staff returning to the island.

Of the hundreds of cases reported as “sonic attacks”, 20 were reported by U.S. intelligence services in January as having no conventional medical or environmental explanation. The so-called “Havana Syndrome” remains unexplained by scientists to this day.