A group of diplomats and members of the Cuban Border Guard visited the US capital and a port facility in North Carolina on a secret visit, according to reports. Joe Biden’s administration, which has allowed a rapprochement between Washington and Havana, refuses to give details of the visit but has reported the visit to Capitol Hill, as it is required to do by law. However, Republican Senator Marco Rubio has asked that the visit be canceled because of the risk of espionage by the Castro dictatorship. Rubio denounced that the Cuban Border Guard is integrated within the Ministry of the Interior, which is subject to US sanctions for human rights violations.
Biden tightened sanctions on that area of the regime in the summer of 2021 due to a wave of repression by Castroism in the face of demonstrations demanding freedom on the island. Nearly 400 people were convicted for taking part in the protests in the previous year. Senator Rubio told President Biden that allowing Cuban intelligence agents to visit sensitive national security facilities to share US coastal and maritime security protocols is an egregious breach. The imprisonment of opponents for participating in protests was the centerpiece of a turbulent year on the island.
Biden has opted to resume the thaw initiated during the presidency of Barack Obama, of whom he was vice president. Above all, negotiations on immigration have resumed because thousands of people are still fleeing the island and seeking asylum in the US Despite the repression on the island and the apparent tensions between the two governments, diplomatic relations are maintained, and even during the Trump years, there were contacts between the two coast guard corps, especially on immigration issues. On some occasions, Cuban boats follow the rafters until they are taken over by the US Coast Guard. On other occasions, the Cuban regime tries to cut off the passage, as happened in October 2022, when a collision resulted in the deaths of five rafters, including a girl.