Havana, May 4 (ACN) The UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) described as inexplicable the delay by the United States in issuing visas to journalists with Prensa Latina Latin American News Agency who are accredited at the United Nations.
UN Association Regrets Visa Delay for Cuban Journalists
Havana, May 4 (ACN) The UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) described as inexplicable the delay by the United States in issuing visas to journalists with Prensa Latina Latin American News Agency who are accredited at the United Nations.
UNCA president Valeria Robecco said she was astonished by the inexplicable delay in issuing the visas to the correspondents who have been waiting for a reply for over two years now.
Prensa Latina news agency has maintained an office at the UN for many years, used by different correspondents and I actually hope that this situation be solved as soon as possible, said the Italian journalist.
Over the past two years, UNCA has made contacts with the US mission at the United Nations, known as USUN, to find out about the state of the visas for correspondents Ibis Frade and Ernesto Redonet.
USUN initially said that both cases were under “administrative process” but later they no longer replied to emails sent by the president of UNCA.
Since December 2019, Prensa Latina’s correspondents accredited at the UN have been waiting for their visas in Havana, for which they have applied twice, since one year after the application is made the process automatically closes.
The UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU) renewed the accreditations of the two Prensa Latina correspondents although they did not have their Category I visas for foreign media representatives, one of the requirements in this process.
Both MALU and UNCA expressed their intention to maintain the Prensa Latina office in the UN building.
UN Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in September last year that the Secretariat was following the Prensa Latina case.
Several UN member nations, including Cuba, have repeatedly denounced that the United States usually fails to meet its obligations with the multilateral organization.
Just eight days after its first dispatch on 16 June 1959, Prensa Latina opened an office in New York which was used by outstanding Colombian writer and journalist and Nobel Literature Prize Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Due to persecution against its journalists, the New York office closed and the agency decided to only work at the UN building as of 1969, limited to only covering issues relevant to the world organization.
Since 2019, Prensa Latina correspondents at the UN have not been able to return to their New York office because they have not got their visas.
Similar situation is undergone by Prensa Latina correspondents in Washington DC, who came to Cuba for vacations in 2019 and were not issued visas to return.
Nos reservamos el derecho de no publicar los comentario que incumplan con las normas de este sitio