State Department Softens Travel Warning To Cuba, Recommends ‘Reconsidering’ Trip

WLRN Public Media | By Nora Gámez Torres

Published January 10, 2018 at 6:11 PM EST

Tourists ride a tour bus in front of the Capitolio in Havana, Cuba, in June 2017.

The U.S. State Department has changed its travel alert system and now recommends American citizens “reconsider” visiting Cuba. It had previously issued a warning advising Americans not to travel to the island.

“As we were putting all this together, we did a very careful assessment. We talked to all of our experts, and this is where we came out on Cuba,” Michelle Bernier-Toth, acting deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizen Services, said in a teleconference on Wednesday.

On Sept. 29, the State Department recommended that Americans not travel to Cuba because they could risk becoming victims of mysterious attacks such as those suffered by at least 24 diplomats and their relatives stationed in Havana. The United States also ordered the evacuation of most of its employees at its embassy in the Cuban capital.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.