“Washington strives to hinder the new visa process at the accredited embassies in Havana, in order to increase affected Cubans´ discomfort,” according to the statement.

MINREX said this behavior contrasts with the traditional and veiled encouragement for the Cuban migrant to use those territories in order to irregularly reach the United States border.

“It is cynical to force Cubans to travel to Guyana to process their migrant visas and, at the same time, arrange for those who intend to reach Georgetown to get a transit visa through a third country; while keeping the US consulate´s activities in Havana suspended or very limited.”

Mr. Soberón recalled the US refusal to process in Cuba as many as 20,000 annual visas already committed to in bilateral agreements and the burden of the tightened economic blockade that affects Cuban people’s standard of living.

According to MINREX, Cuba has dealt with the US government such issues through diplomatic channels.

In addition, Cuba is constantly in touch with governments “whose sovereign migration provisions it respects, but which it is requesting to apply without discrimination against Cubans.”

According to Soberón, the high legal and irregular migratory flow of Cubans through countries in the region, particularly Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, also implies a burden for those nations and for their relationship with the United States.

Regarding Cuba, Soberón recalled that the US immigration policy has had the legal support of the Cuban Adjustment Act since the 1960s, providing every national who arrives in the United States with nearly automatic possibility of adjusting their migratory status.

Since 2017, Washington has failed to comply with its obligation signed in 1994 to guarantee legal migration to its territory of a minimum of 20,000 Cubans per year.

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