- No place like home: Biden hosts 'Quad' leaders
- One dead, 7 missing as heavy rains trigger floods in central Japan
- Zelensky says no UK, US go-ahead to use long-range missiles
- New Zealand edge Australia 31-28 in Bledisloe Cup thriller
- Japan orders evacuations as heavy rains trigger floods in quake-hit area
- New Zealand pilot freed in Indonesia after 19 months in rebel captivity
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli air strike kills top commanders
- Leading climate activist released from Vietnam jail
- Ethiopians struggle with bitter pill of currency reform
- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Stock markets mostly fall after Fed-fueled rally
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
US to reopen consulate in Cuba, hit by 'sonic attacks'
The United States consulate, closed since 2017 following alleged "sonic attacks" against diplomatic staff, will resume a limited service issuing visas, its embassy in Havana said Thursday.
Washington reduced the US mission to the bare minimum five years ago when then-president Donald Trump accused Havana of carrying out "sonic attacks" targeting embassy staff.
US personnel and their families suffered from mystery illnesses subsequently known as "Havana Syndrome." Similar incidences later occurred at other embassies around the world.
A US government report in 2020 said the illnesses were most likely caused by "directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy."
The consulate "will begin the limited resumption of some immigrant visa services, as part of a gradual expansion of the embassy's functions," said Timothy Zuniga-Brown, the charge d'affaires at the US diplomatic mission in Havana.
The consulate closure was a major blow for Cubans wishing to emigrate to the US as it obliged them to tackle numerous obstacles, among them being forced to travel to Colombia or Guyana to submit a request.
"There are a lot of people that want to leave who take a boat to go there (to the US) or through a third country," said Cuban pensioner Felipe Mesa, 75.
Zuniga-Brown said the consulate will only schedule appointments with people that have already presented complete document files. During the transition period, most requests will still have to be made in Guyana's capital Georgetown.
The consular service will also provide essential services to US citizens and emergency non-immigrant visas, he added.
- No warming of relations -
According to existing immigration agreements, the US should authorize 20,000 immigrant visas a year to Cubans.
With Cuba suffering its worst economic crisis in 30 years due to the coronavirus pandemic, most Cubans hoping to emigrate to the US have chosen to do so through the dangerous Central American route where migrants face exploitation by people smugglers.
"The visa services for migrants are a secure and legal way towards family reunification," said Zuniga-Brown, referring to families split between the two countries.
Political scientist Rafael Hernandez says the US failure to honor the migration agreement led to "a type of silent Mariel," in reference to the mass exodus of around 125,000 Cubans to the US in 1980.
He said the number of undocumented Cubans in the US rose from 21,000 in 2019 to 40,000 a year later.
The reduction in US diplomatic staff in Cuba reflected increased tensions between the two countries after Trump succeeded Barack Obama in the White House.
Trump put an end to the improving relationship that had seen Obama approve the re-establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 2015.
Many Cubans hoped the election Joe Biden -- Obama's former vice-president -- would improve things, but in vain.
This move "in no way represents a continuity of the Obama policy," said Hernandez, but rather a "rolling back of the atrocities committed" by Trump.
Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, agreed.
"It would be a mistake to interpret it as the beginning of a significant opening towards the island," he said.
With mid-term US elections due in November, "it is difficult to imagine there would be other changes" in current Washington policy towards Cuba, said Shifter.
The United States has regularly criticized Cuba's communist party leaders over the arrest and conviction of anti-government protesters who took to the streets in unprecedented demonstrations last July.
K.Brown--BTB