The US Department of State has introduced visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials, including the Cuban government employees and high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) The US Department of State has introduced visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials, including the Cuban government employees and high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday.
"The Department of State has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 5377, which suspends nonimmigrant entry into the United States of officers and employees of the Cuban government and Cuban Communist Party," the statement read.
Those 28 officials include officials involved in the alleged crackdown on the protests of July 11, 2021. Among them are high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party responsible for defining policy at the national and provincial levels, according to the statement.
"Instead of ensuring the safety of the Cuban people and respect for their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, these officials permitted or facilitated violent and unjust detentions, sham trials, and prison sentences spanning decades for hundreds of protesters," the statement added.
The new restriction supplements previous US policies "to promote accountability for Cuban officials who enable their government's assaults on democracy and human rights," such as three rounds of visa restrictions imposed by the US Department of State since November 2021 and four rounds of financial sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department since July 2021.
