{"id":263748,"date":"2023-01-18T13:05:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T18:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=263748"},"modified":"2023-01-18T13:05:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T18:05:41","slug":"the-rebirth-of-the-parque-de-los-suspiros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/the-rebirth-of-the-parque-de-los-suspiros\/","title":{"rendered":"The rebirth of the Parque de los Suspiros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years ago, silence and inactivity unexpectedly took over the Parque de los Suspiros (Park of Sighs). The until then crowded Vedado site, located in front of the Calzada y K funeral home and a few meters from the <\/span>U.S. embassy in Havana<\/b><\/a>, suffered the disastrous blow of the closure of almost all U.S. consular services on the island. The drastic measure was taken by the Donald Trump administration under the pretext of alleged <\/span>sonic attacks<\/b><\/a> against its diplomats. The numerous people present at the park disappeared from one day to the next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, at the end of 2017, Cubans who wished to travel legally to the United States, to emigrate or visit, for study or another reason, had to carry out their procedures outside of Cuba \u2014 with Colombia first and Guyana later as the main base of operations for the immigrant visas \u2014 and with the consequent impact on pockets and mental health.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, they stopped meeting in the soulless Havana park to wait their turn for an interview, the delivery of documents or the collection of the passport with the stamped visa, as had happened there for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was only in May 2022, more than a year after Biden assumed the presidency, that <\/span>some visas began to be processed in the Cuban capital. The service increased in the following months, including applications for the family reunification program, also suspended by Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, after two rounds of dialogue between authorities from both countries and in the midst of a massive wave of Cuban migration to the United States, both by land and by sea, the U.S. government <\/span>announced in September<\/b><\/a> the total resumption of visa procedures for immigrants in Cuba as of January.<\/span><\/p>\n

The step has brought closure to the annoying and unpopular chapter of Guyana and has returned the movement to the Parque de los Suspiros, even if non-immigrant visas, with few exceptions, remain out of the equation.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Embassy in Cuba reactivates Family Reunification Parole Program<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n