Cuba's foreign minister on Monday hit out at Cuban immigration to the United States after Cuba was not invited to the Summit of the Americas to be held in Los Angeles this June, NBC News reports.
Cuba Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said in a press conference that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken should "say in an honest way if Cuba will be invited to the ninth Summit of the Americas."
He added that U.S. policy towards Cuba is "incoherent" and "contradictory," saying that the U.S. ups the embargo "and at the same time restricts migration."
Rodríguez went on to blame the U.S. for removing employees from the Havana Embassy as one of the main reasons that Cubans are leaving for the U.S. in rising numbers, saying that this caused the embassy to stop processing visas in Havana.
This means that Cubans have to travel to other countries nearby in order to get their visas processed, which is a very expensive prospect for the average resident of the island. Rodríguez said that this has caused the U.S. not to issue the 20,000 migrant visas it is supposed to issue each year according to the 1994 migrant accords.
He also noted that while the U.S. grants financial incentives to countries that are close to its borders in order to reduce migration but "with Cuba, the recipe is the extreme strengthening" when it comes to the embargo.