HAVANA—Cuba suspended indefinitely all mail service to the United States on Friday, extending a ban announced in November and expanding it to cover letters as well as packages.
The move is a setback for relations between the two countries, enemies for more than half a century. It came just days after the Obama Administration announced it was easing travel restrictions on academics and church groups seeking to visit the island.
“Until further notice, we cannot continue to accept any type of delivery,” Cuba’s mail service, Correos de Cuba, said Friday in an announcement read over state television.
Mail service was suspended in the 1960s, shortly after Fidel Castro came to power. Limited mail service routed through third countries resumed in 2009, following talks between U.S. and Cuban officials.
But deliveries were suspended in November following a U.S. decision to increase security measures following last year’s failed terror threat involving packages mailed from Yemen.
Friday’s announcement extends that ban to cover all types of correspondence, including letters and postcards, according to the newscast.
“I think it has to do with how countries, on a case-by-case basis, are working through new regulations that have been put into effect,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, a reference to the security measures put in place due to the Yemen incident.
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