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HAVANA (AP) - Cuba chided the United States on Tuesday for being too slow to issue visas to Cubans wanting off the island.
The Foreign Relations Ministry indicated the dearth of visas for Cubans could be part of what it sees as President Bush's efforts to destabilize the communist government and warned it could lead to a spike in illegal immigration.
Under a 1994 agreement, Washington uses a lottery system to grant up to 20,000 Cubans permission to emigrate to America each fiscal year ending Sept. 30. But Cuba's government said Tuesday that through June 30, only 10,724 Cubans had been granted visas — just 53.6 percent of the annual minimum.
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