ES / EN
Cristina Escobar

Cristina Escobar

The bank that marred New Year’s Eve’s Dinner

Cuba suspended its consular activities in its Interest Section in Washington. The article published is quite clear about the reasons. However, many people on both sides of the Florida Straits are concerned about what this decision means. The end of the year approaches and families want to get together, but unfortunately policies set again obstacles to that. The decision to suspend consular activities is due to the fact that virtually all consular activities involving payment in the U.S. occur through banks. The users of these services pay via credit card in a country where if you do not have a bank account is like you don’t exist, something difficult to understand sometimes in Cuba. So, if the banks do not want to provide services any consular activity involving a payment is prevented or hindered. Without own transactions consular activity is directly affected such as issuing passports and visas to come to Cuba. Since last July M & T, the bank that provided services to foreign diplomatic missions , gave the Interests Section of Cuba and the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations a deadline to find a new bank with which to operate , but, despite the effort...