CUBA/FOREIGN POLICY: “It was grim, unsettling news: the United States warned Americans on Friday [9-29-17] not to travel to Cuba and ordered the withdrawal of more than half its diplomats in Havana.
The announcement, which spread around the island in spurts, largely by word of mouth, dealt a harsh blow to Cubans who had hoped the nascent normalization of relations with the United States that began in late 2014 would usher in a period of economic growth and greater prosperity in the impoverished Communist nation…
The measures announced Friday — taken in response to hearing loss and other ailments that American government employees in Cuba had experienced in recent months — stirred anxiety and dread on the island.
The State Department’s decision to stop issuing visas in Havana indefinitely leaves thousands of Cubans in limbo. Washington typically grants 20,000 immigrant visas a year to reunite Cubans with relatives in the United States, and thousands more to enable students, academics and tourists to travel.”
-Ernesto Londono, “Cubans Alarmed at U.S. Embassy Withdrawals and Travel Warning,” The New York Times online, Sept. 29, 2017