RELATED TOPICS: Cuba, Donald Trump, ESTA, Johana Tablada de la Torre, Miami, MINREX, ONEI, SST, State Sponsors of Terrorism
The United States has restricted entry with the ESTA program to 300,000 Europeans who have visited Cuba, this as a result of the island being on the list of US Sponsors of Terrorism (SST), a newly implemented measure in 2021 by Donald Trump.
With the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), Europeans only had to manage the entry permit to the country on the portal. However, the restriction directly affects citizens of the European Union, as reported by Cibercuba.
For her part, Johana Tablada de la Torre, deputy director general of the United States General Directorate of MINREX, asked Washington “for the resumption of the issuance of non-immigrant visas in Havana and the reestablishment of ESTA authorization for dual Cuban nationals. and visitors to the island,” points out the same medium.
Tablada asked the North American country to respect the right of citizens of third countries to be able to visit Cuba without any type of restriction and disqualified the inclusion of Cuba on the list due to the negative effects it has on the arrival of international visitors.
As reported REPORTUR.mxDuring the month of March, Cuba received 809,238 international visitors, which represents 107.5%, that is, 56,807 more tourists compared to the same period in 2023, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). However, Spanish tourism fell, while Mexican and Argentine tourism soared. (Cuba: Spanish tourism falls and Mexican and Argentine tourism soars).
The big surprise is the Spanish visitors, who traditionally occupied fifth place, as they went from 16,996 visitors in 2023 to 14,036 in the same period in March.
