Havana/The United States Government suspended “the application mechanism of a group of visa categories” that use officials of the Cuban State and its dependencies to travel to that country, informed the AP agency Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the island.
The decision was announced after the American consular section rejected in the last hours “dozens of passports” without granting the respective visas, including part of the Cuban basketball team that had to develop a qualifying match on Sunday in Puerto Rico.
“We can confirm that in the last hours the United States Government returned dozens of passports without visa and said that the application mechanism of a group of visa categories used for state officials and their dependencies is suspended,” said Cossío.
The decision affects “directly bilateral exchanges that were taking place in areas of interest and mutual benefit for the peoples of Cuba and the United States”
The decision affects “directly bilateral exchanges that were taking place in areas of interest and mutual benefit for the peoples of Cuba and the United States, such as culture, health, education, science and sports,” said the official.
Another source of the Cuban Foreign Ministry said, in anonymity, that the rejection of the visas is directly related to a 2020 United States disposal that vetoes the delivery of visas to countries that do not cooperate with the migrant deportation process.
Since the new administration assumed, there have been no repatriation flights from the US to Cuba. When questioned in relation to the issue for AP, Cossío said he had no comments on whether Havana had received flights in January or February with deportations under the Trump government.
Last December, journalist Bill Melugin de Fox News denounced that the Cuba government refused to accept the return of 42,084 migrants with final deportation orders.
According to internal data of the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE), to which the US chain had access, the island is one of the 15 “recalcitrant” countries that does not cooperate to specify the expulsions.
