The refusal “destroyed the aspirations of those who prepared for that competition,” Cubadebate reported.
14ymedio, Havana, 6 April 2025 — The Cuban Athletics Federation (FCA) reported that the United States denied visas to 14 out of 16 athletes on the Island. The FCA stated that this “unacceptable action” prevented Cuba from having a full delegation at the 2025 World Indoor Athletics Masters Championships, which took place in Gainesville (Florida) between March 23 -30. The lack of a visa “crushed the aspirations of those who prepared for this competition,” Cubadebate reported.
The official State newspaper Granma accused the US of “again disrespecting the world sports movement by not fulfilling the obligations of a venue and preventing all athletes from participating with equal rights.” Moreover, according to Margit Jungmann, president of the World Athletics Championships, “it is a celebration of the passion, dedication and camaraderie that define Master Athletics.”
Granma indicates that on January 27, the process for obtaining visas began at the US Embassy in Havana, but almost a month later, on February 25, the diplomatic headquarters “called for interviews and denied visas to four of the applicants.”
It further noted that on March 31, when the event had already concluded, they were notified that the other 10 visas had also been refused.
The two Cubans who did not have visa problems live in the United States. The official media even resorted to the poem “Ode to Sport” by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to insist that the United States once again ignored the sacred foundational concepts of the Olympic movement.
In the last week of March, the jazz group at Clark College in Washington was also denied a travel permit
Last February, the US government suspended “the application mechanism for a group of visa categories” used by Cuban state officials and their agencies to travel to the United States.
The decision directly affects “bilateral exchanges that were taking place in areas of mutual interest and benefit for the peoples of Cuba and the United States, such as culture, health, education, science and sports,” said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
Among those affected at the time was the basketball team that was to participate in a qualifying match in Puerto Rico. The last week of March, the jazz group at Clark College in Washington was also denied a travel permit. A letter sent to Clark College by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), indicated that the presence of the group in Havana is “incompatible” with the policies of the US government, and, therefore, the travel permit was denied.
In mid-March, The New York Times published a draft that included Cuba on a red list of citizens who would be banned from entering the US. The US special envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, avoided commenting on the issue. “I neither affirm nor deny,” he said. “It is still being discussed; I have nothing to add.”
However, he defended the immigration policy of the Donald Trump administration: “We’re going to be more surgical, more effective.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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