Hit by a serious economic crisis, Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented migratory exodus. It is in this context that the American embassy in Havana resumes, Wednesday, January 4, the total issuance of visas for Cubans wishing to settle in the United States.
“The United States is working to ensure safe, legal, and orderly emigration for Cubans by expanding consular services in Havana and resuming [les procédures] family reunification”the American diplomatic representation said on Friday, in a press release confirming the resumption on January 4.
The embassy announced in March the reopening of its consulate, closed since 2017 due to alleged health incidents affecting diplomats. Several high-level meetings on the migration issue followed, first in Washington and then in Havana, with the aim of reactivating the migration agreements between the two countries interrupted under the government of Donald Trump (2017-2021). .
Course d’obstacles
In May, the consulate thus resumed “limited” the issuance of visas for Cubans wishing to emigrate, then the embassy announced a full resumption of procedures, except for tourist visas, for January 2023.
“We have made very discreet progress aimed at putting bilateral cooperation on the path to the execution of migration agreements”acknowledged Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in mid-December.
Since 2017, Cubans wishing to obtain a visa for the United States have faced a veritable obstacle course, with the obligation to apply, at their own expense, in a third country – generally Guyana, in South America. South.
Since the end of 2021, many Cubans have taken advantage of the visa exemption in Nicaragua, an ally of Havana, to then try to join the United States through Central America. Some 326,336 Cubans, or 2.9% of the island’s population (11.2 million inhabitants), thus entered the United States illegally over twelve months (until the beginning of December 2022), according to the authorities. Americans. Illegal emigration by sea has also skyrocketed in recent months.
Biden’s rhetoric has hardened
The Cuban government has acknowledged that Washington had granted in 2022, for the first time since 2017, more than 20,000 visas to Cubans wishing to settle in the United States, as provided for in agreements dating from 1994. But, even if Washington “does not want to recognize it, there is a direct link between the resurgence of extreme measures against the Cuban economy and the dramatic migratory flow that has exploded”insisted in November with Agence France-Presse Johana Tablada, senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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If certain sanctions imposed under the mandate of Donald Trump have been relaxed by his successor Joe Biden, the Democrat is careful for the moment to take over the policy of rapprochement initiated by Barack Obama (2009-2017). Upon arriving at the White House in 2021, Mr Biden had promised to review US policy toward Cuba, but his rhetoric hardened following anti-government protests on the island in July 2021.
In December, the US president called again for the release of “hundreds of political prisoners” arrested during the demonstrations. Washington has also kept Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and recently included it in another list of countries that violate religious freedom. The normalization of relations between the two countries is therefore not on the agenda.