This week, Cuba asked the United States to resume granting non-immigrant visas in Havana and to reestablish the ESTA permit for dual Cuban nationals and visitors to the island.
Johana Tablada de la Torre, deputy director general of the United States General Directorate of MINREX, reported this in a note prior to the round of migration talks.
Las of priorities presented by the Foreign Ministry were the resumption of non-immigrant visas in Havana and respect for the right of third countries to visit Cuba.
Cuba criticizes that Cubans must travel to third countries to apply for this type of visa, which affects families and encourages emigration. In addition, it denounces the island’s inclusion on the list of sponsors of terrorism, which restricts visits by citizens of 41 countries.
As if that were not enough, citizens of third countries who have visited Cuba on or following January 12, 2021 cannot use the ESTA authorization to enter the United States. They must apply for a visa. Even if they already have an approved ESTA, this would be revoked if it is discovered that they have been in Cuba or have dual Cuban nationality.
Cubans ask for restoration of ESTA permit
More than a year ago, thousands of Cuban-Spanish residents in Cuba joined together to ask the Spanish government, through its Foreign Ministry, to intercede to suspend the measure on ESTA permits for nationals residing or traveling to the island.
In a letter addressed to the Spanish Embassy in Cuba, the signatories, ‘Spaniards in Cuba for ESTA’, point out that the measure imposed by the United States administration “causes many inconveniences, additional expenses and the possibility that the visa will be denied without reasons or explanation.”
But, last December, an annual report from the US Department ratified Cuba as a country that supports terrorism, which implies the application of a series of sanctions once morest the largest of the Antilles.
The Joe Biden Administration maintains in the report that Cuba “did not formally respond to the extradition requests” of leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Colombia, who were in Havana as part of the beginning of a peace process in 2021.
He report It also accuses Cuba of harboring several fugitives from US justice, wanted on charges related to political violence, who have been residing on the island for decades.
With this background, the question remains in the air: is the end of the ESTA measure for Cubans with dual nationality approaching?
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