ES / EN
- July 11, 2025 -
No Result
View All Result
OnCubaNews
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
OnCubaNews
ES / EN
Home Nation and Migration

Cuba: still no date for conference of emigrants, although there’s “interest in holding it”

According to Ernesto Soberón, general director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad of the island’s Foreign Ministry, “the vast majority of Cubans abroad and, in particular, residents in the United States, favor an improvement of relations between the two countries,” something that, in his opinion, will not change with the upcoming U.S. elections, whatever the outcome.

by
  • OnCuba Staff
    OnCuba Staff,
  • OnCuba editorial staff
October 21, 2020
in Nation and Migration
0
Archive photo of Cuban emigrants in Europe during a three-day meeting in Brussels in 2018. Photo: @SoberonGuzman/Twitter/Archive.

Archive photo of Cuban emigrants in Europe during a three-day meeting in Brussels in 2018. Photo: @SoberonGuzman/Twitter/Archive.

The 4th The Nation and Emigration Conference, initially scheduled for last April and which had to be postponed due to COVID-19, still doesn’t have a defined date for its holding. However, “interest in holding it continues,” Ernesto Soberón, general director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad of the island’s Foreign Ministry, said to OnCuba.

“With the level of uncertainty that still exists about the pandemic, with outbreaks in several countries and the complex situation that we had in Cuba in recent months that we are already leaving behind, we will have to wait a little longer to define a date when it’s considered prudent to implement it,” Soberón replied to a question from our media at a press conference held this Monday.

According to the diplomat, when it was decided to postpone the event―which seeks to promote a dialogue between the Cuban authorities and the emigration―“there was a significant number of Cubans who had expressed their interest in attending from a diverse number of countries.” For this reason, and taking into account the current scenario, the government of the island is considering it will wait until a time when there’s “normal flights and when everyone who wants to participate can do so.”

Regarding possible new measures of a migratory nature that, according to what was unofficially commented, could have been announced at the conference, Soberón did not confirm that this was planned as part of the meeting’s agenda and ruled out that it was necessary to wait for the holding of events of this type to update Cuba’s policy related to its emigrants.

“Cuban migratory policy is updated and is constantly being analyzed, and one of the achievements we have had in these 42 years of policy towards Cubans abroad is that it has not been necessary to wait for conferences of this nature to announce new measures,” explained the official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), who said that this had happened in 2013, 2016 and 2018, when changes in the country’s migratory regulations were announced.

“The measures are evaluated and applied at the time it is considered most appropriate, and it’s not necessary to wait until an event is held to announce them,” he stressed, although without confirming or denying whether new measures could be announced before the 4th Cuba: The Nation and Emigration Conference takes place, if it continues to be postponed due to the pandemic.

Related Posts

Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EFE.

Laws on Immigration, Citizenship and Aliens in Cuba: Some keys and doubts

July 20, 2024
Photo: Kaloian.

Cuba already has a new Law on Immigration

July 19, 2024
First Colonel Mario Méndez Mayedo, head of the Identification, Immigration and Aliens Department of the Ministry of Interior (MININT), during a press conference on the migration bill. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

“No one loses a property” with the new migration law, says MININT

June 29, 2024

Hugo Cancio: “This is my country, our country, where all Cubans were born”

December 1, 2023

Soberón also affirmed at the press conference that the automatic and free extension of the stay of Cubans residing abroad beyond the established 24 months―decreed by the pandemic and recently canceled and restored after a wave of criticism and comments in this regard—would remain “until it is possible to return to normality in terms of regular flights.” Furthermore, he insisted that “there are no issues that cannot be discussed between Cuba and its nationals abroad” even though he acknowledged that “not everything is resolved” in this regard.

MINREX: no-cost extension for Cubans abroad will be maintained until flights are normalized

“We are fully aware of the existing concerns, of issues that are still pending,” said the official, who referred in particular to the consular fees related to the extension of the passport and the high cost of applying for it, a constant dissatisfaction of the Cuban community outside the island and that, most likely, would focus part of the debates in the conference scheduled with the emigrants.

“This is one of the topics that is frequently discussed in all the meetings with Cubans abroad, and talks on this are being held and it’s being analyzed,” said Soberón, for whom “so far it has been demonstrated that all issues in terms of relations between Cuba and Cubans abroad have been gradually solved,” a line that, he said, “we will continue in the future.” 

United States: sanctions and elections

According to the general director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad of MINREX, while Cuba has developed a group of actions to best tend to its nationals outside the island during the pandemic and seeks to favor relations with the Cuban community abroad, the United States has not stopped establishing sanctions against Cuba “aimed at hindering ties between Cuban families, and hindering travel between the two countries.”

“Even before the pandemic, the U.S. government had adopted a series of measures that significantly affected the ties between Cuban citizens residing in that country―where, as it is known, our main community abroad resides―and their relatives and friends in Cuba,” said Soberón, who listed among these measures the suspension of regular and charter flights to Cuban airports except Havana, the suspension of consular services on the island and “the fact that any Cuban who wishes to travel to the United States is forced to go to a third country to apply for the visa, which makes the process more expensive and difficult.”

This is why, he said, although the COVID-19 has come to make more difficult the ties between Cubans residing in the United States and their families in Cuba, the “underlying anomaly, the aberration” is really “the policy of aggressiveness that the U.S. government has developed against our country, especially the current administration, which affects all Cubans, both those here and there, without discriminating where they reside.”

However, Soberón affirmed that for him it was “very clear” that, despite the embargo and Washington’s hostility towards the island, “the vast majority of Cubans abroad and, in particular, residents in the United States, favor an improvement of relations between the two countries,” something that, in his opinion, will not change with the upcoming U.S. elections, whatever the outcome.

Carlos Lazo launches petition to Biden to repeal sanctions against Cuba if he wins the elections

“The issue of how the elections in the U.S. can affect Cuban families divided between the two countries is a question for whoever is elected in November,” the diplomat replied to the AP agency.

“What I’m very clear about,” he added, “is that, despite the intensification of the blockade, the financial persecution, all the obstacles to sending remittances to Cuba, and all the hysteria that has been created around Cuba, the majority of Cubans in the United States favor an increase in trade relations with the country, favor an increase in the sale of medicines, favor the lifting of sanctions during the COVID-19 period―as there have been petitions in social networks that, in some cases have even received more than 20,000 signatures―, favor flights to all Cuban provinces, favor the reestablishment of consular services in Havana and not having to travel to third countries to obtain the visa.”

“In that sense, I don’t think that position will change beyond the U.S. elections in November,” he concluded.

  • OnCuba Staff
    OnCuba Staff,
  • OnCuba editorial staff
Tags: coronavirus in CubaCuba Foreign Affairs Ministrycuban immigrants
Previous Post

Foreign Direct Investment and organization

Next Post

Cuba reports 63 new cases of coronavirus, 41 in Pinar del Río

OnCuba Staff

OnCuba Staff

OnCuba Staff

OnCuba Staff

Next Post
All the cases correspond to Cubans and were autochthonous, according to the report issued by MINSAP. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez

Cuba reports 63 new cases of coronavirus, 41 in Pinar del Río

The situation is so complex in Pinar del Río that all its municipalities reported cases this time. The rest of the provinces with contagions: Havana, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila. Photo: María Isabel Perdigón. facebook.com/guerrillero.cu

Coronavirus in Cuba: one deceased and 53 new infections, the majority from Pinar del Río

Photo: copaair.com/Archive.

Copa Airlines to make two Havana-Panama flights

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Read

  • Flags of Cuba and the United States, seen in perspective in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

    Trump reinstates hard-line Cuba embargo as Havana condemns US measure as “criminal”

    29 shares
    Share 12 Tweet 7
  • Lester Lescay: “I left Cuba because I didn’t want to spend my youth there.”

    17 shares
    Share 7 Tweet 4
  • San Juan Hill: heritage in the attic?

    12 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • Los Palacios, land of Cuban rice harvested by Vietnamese

    12 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • A sanctuary for jazz in Cuba: César López’s dream

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4

Most Commented

  • Photo: Kaloian.

    Private sector and tourism in Cuba. Why not?

    12 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • About us
  • Work with OnCuba
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy for comments
  • Contact us
  • Advertisement offers

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}