MIAMI, United States. – The US Embassy in Havana reiterated this Tuesday that it had not denied any visa request from Cuban activists to travel to the Summit of the Peoples, the parallel event to the IX Summit of the Americas, which is being held in the city of Los Angeles.
“As hosts of the Summit of the Americas, we welcome the participation of civil society, and we are including independent voices in all aspects of the Summit”, tweeted the US diplomatic headquarters in Havana.
In a tweet from last May 20and the US Embassy had reported that the accusations of unfairly denying visas to attend the People’s Summit were “false.”
“Due to the departure of non-emergency personnel following abnormal health incidents, nonimmigrant visa appointments are only available in very limited circumstances. Cubans seeking other nonimmigrant visa appointments should apply at a US embassy or consulate outside of Cuba,” the diplomatic headquarters also specified.
Recently, it transpired that the US Embassy on the Island had denied a visa to the official spokesperson Cristina Escobar, who had been invited to the People’s Summit.
In this regard, the Cuban activist Salomé García Bacallao he asked himself when Washington would require regime spokesmen to register as foreign agents.
Likewise, he believed that the immigration authorities had “every right to deny visas to foreign citizens.”
“What they do not have the right to do is prevent the citizens of their own country from entering or leaving without mediating any legal prohibition or judicial resolution,” he added, referring to the prohibitions on leaving and entering the country applied by the island’s regime to its own citizens.
For its part, the island’s regime prevented the participation of various representatives of Cuban civil society in the People’s Summit. This Monday it transpired that the journalist Henry Constantín, director of Cuban Time.
Last Sunday, the regime also prevented from leaving the country of the journalist CubaNet Maria Matienzo Puerto; and last Friday, State Security prevented activist Aimara Peña from traveling to Havana. She was supposed to board a plane bound for the United States to attend the People’s Summit.
Likewise, the activist and entrepreneur from Santa Clara Saily González Velázquez was prevented from attending the hemispheric event.
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