The US Must Comply With Its Migration Commitments: Cuba

During a negotiation round on migration issues on Thursday, Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister Carlos Fernandez called on the United States to fully comply with migration agreements made with his country.

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"Washington reneged on its commitment to issue no less than 20,000 annual visas to Cubans from its embassy in Havana, whose activities it reduced in 2017 by alleging that the Cuban state perpetuated sonic attacks on its personnel,” Fernandez stressed.

"This situation has forced Cubans who wish to travel or migrate to the United States to go to consulates in third countries to process their visas,” he added, arguing that those people who cannot afford this expense have been forced to migrate irregularly.

The Vice-Minister also pointed out that the U.S. maintains a harsh economic policy against Cuba to force its citizens to abandon it. “Just in 2020, the strengthening of the blockade caused US$9 billion economic loss,” he stated.

The U.S. and Cuba dialogues on migration issues had been suspended in 2018 by President Donald Trump (2017-2021), who completely reversed the rapprochement launched by his predecessor Barack Obama (2009-2017) with this Caribbean country.

President Joe Biden promised to encourage diplomatic thaw with Cuba during his political campaign. However, soon after holding power, he claimed that the July 11th protests in Cuba forced him to "change" his approach toward this Caribbean nation.

Cuban authorities condemned this attitude, stressing that the Biden administration backed such opposition-led demonstrations as part of the U.S. traditional regime-change policy.