By Orlando Oramas León February 12, 2022
photo: efe
The United States fails to comply with the migratory agreements it has made with Cuba, and at the same time encourages illegal emigration from the island, whose population it is trying to suffocate with the economic, commercial and financial blockade.
This is the opinion of Daniel Quintana, an official of the US General Department in the Cuban Foreign Ministry that he expressed in an interview with the Cubadebate digital site.
“It is an issue that affects third countries and has implications for the life and safety of those who bet on those roads”, Quintana points out.
The phenomenon works as a vicious circle that has as its starting point with the closure of the US Consulate in Havana, which Washington has failed for several years to meet its agreed upon commitment to ensure a minimum of 20,000 visas per year.
On the contrary, in the last four years, the US has granted an average of only 4,000 visas for Cuban immigrants annually, in addition to putting up all kinds of obstacles so that citizens of the island can appear before the consular authorities of the North American nation.
The mandatory requirement of Cubans to go to a third country to apply for a visa, with no guarantee of completing their paperwork or receiving a positive response, makes these services more expensive and leads many citizens to opt for illegal or unsafe ways to enter the United States.
In 2018, the Trump administration suspended the dialogues on migration issues with Cuba, a decision that coincided with the arrival of Mike Pompeo to the State Department, and of John Bolton and Mauricio Claver-Carone to the National Security Council.
Anyone might think that this is past history, but the truth is that the government of Democratic President Joe Biden has maintained the same obstructionist stance, although in recent days from Washington there has been talk of the hypothetical sending of consular personnel to Havana.
The Cuban diplomat stresses that the State Department has not communicated anything in this regard, and reminded that the current president broke his campaign promises regarding Cuba during the electoral campaign that brought him to the White House.
According to deputy director for the United States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Johana Tablada, the official US policy has been to use the delicate migration issue as a weapon in its ample arsenal against the Cuban Revolution.
As part of the blockade, this action is aimed at blaming Cuba for the often fatal consequences of their policy.
“There has been no lack of alarm, nor the use of diplomatic channels, to convey to the US government the importance of acting responsibly on this issue and returning to the negotiating table”, Tablada recently declared in a televised appearance.
The importance of the migratory dialogue is underscored by the increase of illegal activities between the coasts of both countries. In the last year at least 38 people, among them 33 Cubans and five foreigners, were arrested in Cuba for human trafficking, an illicit activity on the rise.
“Our Border Guard Troops have registered, since the beginning of 2021 to date, the capture of 20 speedboats in violation,” said a report from the Ministry of the Interior, which details the arrests of 33 Cubans living abroad, four Mexicans and one American.”
In addition, in 25 days of January 2022, three speedboats were captured and seven human traffickers were arrested, adds the report, published by Granma newspaper.
The source said that “since the middle of last year, there has been an increase in the number of human trafficking operations organized in the United States and destined for that territory”.
In this regard, Quintana reported that in the last year the US Coast Guard returned to Cuba more than a thousand people who tried to cross the Florida Straits in fragile and unsafe boats, with fatalities.
The number of returnees has increased in recent months, despite the winter season, when navigation and weather conditions on this maritime route are most difficult.
“This is an inhumane weapon used by the US authorities. They are stoking the economic difficulties on the island and at the same time hindering the agreed upon migratory flow”, the Caribbean diplomat underlined.
That is why other migrants leave legally by air and seek to reach the US through irregular and dangerous routes in Central America and Mexico.
“The failure of the U.S. government to comply with the migratory agreements between both countries, its actions to hinder direct travel and the reinforcement of the economic blockade encourage illegal migration”, concluded Ernesto Soberón, director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad of the Foreign Ministry, in the Cuban nightly television program Mesa Redonda.
During his speech, Soberon stressed that this irregular flow not only affects Cuba, but also the transit countries, where, in addition, these Cuban citizens become victims of criminals engaged in human trafficking.
Orlando Oramas León is a Cuban journalist and author of the books “Raúl Roa, periodismo y Revolución”, “Pohanohara, Cubanos en Paraguay” and “Cuentos del Arañero”.
Source: Cuba en Resumen