Cuba Suspends Granting Visas To Americans, Citing Lack Of US Bank Account

The Associated Press reports that Cuba announced on Friday that it was suspending consular services in Washington, including the granting of visas, after the US bank M&T said they would no longer be handling the accounts of the Cuban Interests Section and Cuban Permanent Mission in New York. In a press release, the Interests Section apologized for the inconvenience and said that “in spite of the ​​huge efforts made, as a result of the restrictions in force, derived from the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade by the U.S. government against Cuba, it has been impossible for the Interests Section to find a U.S.-based bank that could operate the bank accounts of the Cuban diplomatic missions.”

The news could put at risk both visits on the part of Cuban-Americans to relatives on the island as well as a wide variety of exchanges between the two nations. Those exchanges have grown in number and scope under the Obama administration after the Bush administration set new restrictions on them in 2004. Reuters reported in October that Americans are visiting Cuba in record numbers, with 98,000 US citizens visiting in 2012, as compared to 73,500 the year before and about half that five years prior.

But most likely to be affected by the suspension are Cuban-Americans, over 350,000 of whom visited Cuba in 2012. The US State Department told the AP that since M&T made their announcement last summer, it had been “actively working with the Cuban Interests Section to identify a new bank to provide services to the Cuban missions”, including reaching out to over 50 banks to see if they would take on the services. It added that it would continue to work with the CIS in search of a long-term solution.