HAVANA TIMES — The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has eliminated “visa-free entry” for Cuban citizens, which it had established in 2021 as a “humanitarian measure” and which enabled a wave of Cuban migration that used Nicaraguan territory as a springboard toward the United States.

The elimination of visa-free entry was ordered on February 8, 2026, by the director general of Immigration, Juan Emilio Rivas, and leaked to the local press and confirmed hours later by the Interior Ministry.

Rivas’s text emphasizes that “as of this date all citizens and nationals of the Republic of Cuba holding ordinary passports changed their migratory category from A, visa-exempt, to category C, consultative visa without cost.”