Cuba Suspending Consular Services In U.S.

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, left, has her documents checked at passport control before leaving Cuba to travel to Brazil and other countries at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Sunday,... Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, left, has her documents checked at passport control before leaving Cuba to travel to Brazil and other countries at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Sanchez is one of the Cuban dissidents who applied for passports to go overseas under recently enacted travel reform. Her request was granted last month. By her own account Sanchez has on some 20 occasions been rejected for the exit visa that for decades was required of all islanders seeking to go abroad.(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes) MORE LESS
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The Cuban government announced Tuesday that it was suspending consular services in the United States and will no longer issue visas or passports for travel to Cuba, according to the Miami Herald

M&T Bank, which managed the Cuban government’s accounts in the U.S., announced in July that it would stop serving foreign embassies. The country has been so far unable to find an alternative, resulting in suspension of services, the Cuban Mission in Washington, D.C. said in a statement. The mission blamed the American trade embargo on Cuba.

“Due to the existing restrictions stemming from the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade by the North American government against Cuba, it has been impossible for the Interests Section to find until now a U.S. bank or any other bank based in the United States willing to take over the bank accounts of Cuban diplomatic missions,” the statement said.

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