Messages from the Director General of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of MINREX, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán.
Since the beginning of the Pandemic, our consulates and consular offices have developed dissimilar actions based on serving the Cuban community residing abroad, taking into account the exceptional nature of the current situation marked by the impact of Covid-19.
First, remote consular procedures were encouraged and facilitated to avoid the transfer of people and, in this way, reduce the risk of contagion. The cases of Cuban citizens who were infected with Covi-19 were given priority attention.
The necessary support has been provided to the relatives and friends of Cuban citizens who, unfortunately, have died abroad due to Covid-19. Together with the different Cuban communities abroad, and solidarity friends, our embassies and consulates have supported our compatriots who were unable to return to the country because of the Pandemic. Consular assistance was provided to Cuban crew members enrolled in more than 12 cruise ships and more than 20 merchant ships, which were stranded in ports in different countries. Negotiations were carried out with airlines and authorities from different countries, with the aim of coordinating charter flights to Cuba, through which Cuban citizens were transferred to our country and foreigners who were stranded in Cuba were evacuated. From March 21 to date, 94 charter flights were made, in which more than 5,700 Cubans stranded in 56 countries returned.
Upon arrival in Cuba, all these people received the required epidemiological care, whose fundamental objective, as has been reiterated by the highest leadership of our country, is to guarantee the life and health of our nationals. This care included, among other aspects, the transfer to their provinces of residence, accommodation in isolation centers for several days, where they were guaranteed medical care, food and other basic needs; performing PCR and, in cases where it was necessary, transferring them to health centers to receive the required treatment, all at no cost. The foregoing is of singular importance if we take into account the effectiveness of the protocols applied in Cuba in dealing with Covid-19, on which our population has extensive information.
The use of the facilities provided by the new information and communication technologies has been used to the maximum in terms of serving Cubans living abroad. In this sense, virtual national meetings and other initiatives have been developed based on systematic interaction with our nationals. What has been mentioned so far corresponds to the policy of care for Cubans living abroad that our country has invariably maintained since the Dialogue of 1978 took place, promoted and promoted by the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz.
The main objective of this policy, which has been ratified by the top leadership of the State and the Cuban Government on different occasions, continues to be the strengthening of ties with Cubans living abroad. To this end, the country's immigration policy has been periodically updated with measures aimed at facilitating ties between Cubans, those who reside on the island and those who do so abroad; Quite the opposite of the measures adopted by the current US government, aimed at suffocating us economically and hindering the ties between Cuban families. We must not forget that before the emergence of the Pandemic, the US government had already adopted a series of measures aimed at affecting the travel of Cuban citizens, in one sense or another, between the two countries. Policy that has continued to apply in the context of Covid-19.
