Officials from the United States and Cuba will meet on April 16, in Washington, to discuss migration, they told the website Strong coffee sources close to the State Department.
The meeting occurs at a time of diplomatic tensions between both nations, after the March 17 protests in several cities on the island, because The Cuban regime blames the US government for promoting these demonstrations; while the growing number of migrants trying to cross the border from Mexico must be at the center of the debate.
“On April 16, U.S. and Cuban officials will meet in Washington, D.C. to discuss the implementation of the Migration Agreements between Cuba and the United States, a series of bilateral commitments that date back to 1984,” he indicated. Strong coffee, citing a senior State Department official.
Furthermore, the aforementioned source insisted on one of the main objectives of these meetings and that is to guarantee “a safe, orderly, humane and regular migration from Cuba.”
Next Tuesday would be the first meeting of this type between the two countries in 2024, and the fifth since Joe Biden assumed the US presidency. Bilateral migration talks are held twice every year.
In November 2023, both countries held a round of talks on bilateral Migration Agreements, given the escalation of immigrants from the island who arrive daily at the US border, the State Department reported.
According to Strong coffee, “the US representation arrives at this meeting with a list of fulfilled commitments. Since the gradual reopening of the consular services of its embassy in Havana in 2022, The United States has granted more than 70,000 immigrant visas to Cuban nationals, exceeding the annual figures provided for in the 1994 and 1995 migration agreements.”
However, the Cuban side continues to use the embargo and alleged financing from the United States as a justification for not assuming its responsibility in the face of the population's fatigue with the economic and social problems that the Island is experiencing.
After the protests of March 17 in several cities in the country, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) summoned the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States, Benjamin Ziff, to transmit a complaint to him for issuing “slanderous messages… regarding internal affairs of the Cuban reality.”
The State Department said about the accusations from the Cuban side that were absurd.
However, the focus must be on migration, since, Almost 21 thousand Cuban migrants arrived in the United States in February 2024, a figure slightly lower than that of January but which shows the magnitude of the migration crisis on the island.
The latest report from the Border Patrol indicates that 20,815 Cubans arrived at the US borders in the second month of the year, while in January the figure was 22,946.
Recently, The Ministry of the Interior (Minint) said it expects protests in Cuba this summer and once again blamed the United States government, and politicians from that country, for inciting public disorder on the island in the midst of the current crisis.
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