US restarts Cuba visa service after 'Havana syndrome' scare
January 4, 2023
The United States Embassy in Cuba restarted full visa and consular operations on Wednesday for the first time since 2017, when staff fell ill with mysterious symptoms known as Havana syndrome.
Cubans seeking to travel to the US had to submit visa requests in a third country — typically Guyana — in the meantime.
"The United States is working to ensure safe, legal, and orderly migration of Cubans by expanding consular operations in Havana and restarting the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP)," the embassy said in a statement last week.
The embassy had already resumed "limited" visa services in May this year.
Why did the US stop issuing visas in Cuba?
The consular section of the embassy was closed under the Trump administration in 2017, a year after diplomatic staff and their families fell ill with symptoms that couldn't be attributed to known diseases or environmental causes.
Some American observers speculated that the symptoms were the result of microwave radiation or "sonic attacks," leading to the moniker Havana syndrome. Similar symptoms were later reported by staff at other US embassies worldwide.
Multiple US investigations have not been able to prove any link between these symptoms and any state actor.
Cubans crossing illegally from Mexico
The US decision to issue visas in Havana again comes amid the largest wave of migration from Cuba to the US in decades.
In 2021, 39,000 Cubans entered the US illegally, according to American authorities. In 2022, that number jumped to more than 326,000.
Cubans are now the second-largest nationality after Mexicans appearing on the border, US Customs and Border Protection data shows.
This placed pressure on the Biden administration to open more legal pathways for Cubans, and to restart dialogue with the Cuban government on the issue of migration.
"It is a good sign that the governments of both countries are talking to each other about how to manage migration flows in an orderly and rational way," inter-American analyst Michael Shifter from Georgetown University told the AFP news agency.
zc/dj (AP, AFP)