MIAMI, United States. – The Undersecretary for Consular Affairs of the United States, Rena Bitter, will travel to Havana between November 6 and 10. In that period she will also visit Miami and Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, According to the United States Department of State.
In Georgetown, Bitter will meet with officials of the Government of that country to express his appreciation for their cooperation in consular services, including facilitating the processing of visas for Cuban immigrants at the United States Embassy in Georgetown since 2018.
In Miami, the deputy secretary will review the operations of the US passport facility.
Meanwhile, in Havana, the official will join the director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ur Mendoza Jaddou, to discuss the full resumption of immigrant visa processing in early 2023 and the recent resumption of processing of the family reunification program at the United States Embassy in Havana. Both officials will meet with representatives of the Cuban regime.
The visit comes just days after Cuban border troops sank a speedboat carrying more than 20 migrants, killing at least seven people, including a two-year-old girl.
It is not the first time that Cuban and US authorities have discussed migration issues in 2022. In April of this year, officials from the United States and the Cuban regime met in Washington DC to discuss the implementation of the Migration Agreements between the northern nation and the island. , as confirmed by the State Department in a press release back then.
The meeting, which was the first to address migration issues since 2018, was headed, on the one hand, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Emily Mendrala; and, on the other, by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
According to the State Department, “these bilateral discussions on migration are generally held every six months, reflecting the commitment of both countries to periodically review the implementation of the Migration Agreements.”
The meeting between the two countries generated criticism from a broad sector of the Cuban exile community. Republican congressmen for the state of Florida María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez asked the Biden Administration to reconsider the round of migration negotiations.
“We write to express our grave concern regarding the Biden Administration’s announced plans to host talks on migration in Washington, DC with the totalitarian and terrorist state in Cuba,” the representatives said in a statement. letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
For Salazar, Díaz-Balart and Giménez, the negotiations with Havana offer credibility to a regime that has violently repressed the civilian population and that “imprisoned hundreds of people, including children, for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression.” .
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