US Reduces Trip Warning to Cuba from Level Three to Two

The US Department of State said today that it has reduced its travel warning to Cuba, a country internationally recognized as a safe destination, from level three (reconsidering the trip) to two (taking additional precautions).

This measure represents an improvement in the recommendation on visits to Cuba in the four-level ranking (the first asks to take normal precautions and the fourth warns about not to travel).

However, the federal agency justified its decision to reduce the level to two by claiming that more caution should be exercised in Cuba 'due to attacks on employees at the US Embassy in Havana.'

Thus, the State Department continues to use the term attacks to refer to health incidents reported by US officials, despite acknowledging in today's press release that they have not been able to identify the source of what happened.

Thursday's measure comes after last January, when a new system of travel recommendations was released, and Washington placed Cuba in level three, due to 'serious risks to safety and protection.'

At that time, the reason claimed by the US was the situation with the diplomats, which led the State Department to reduce the number of officials in Cuba.

The decision to continue to call to 'reconsider the trips' came a day after the Cuban Educational Travel agency, the organizer of stays in the Caribbean nation, published the results of a survey conducted among 462 US travelers who visited Cuba in 2017 and 2018.

In terms of general security, 83 percent of US travelers, who are banned from traveling to Cuba as tourists, considering that the nation is 'very safe' and 16 percent rated it safe, while less than one percent regarded it as insecure.

During the 41th International Tourism Fair held in Spain last January, Cuba received the Excellence Award as the safest country for tourism.