“We have no explanation,” he told the newspaper La Diaria, adding that he prefers to consider the measure as a pause.

“It’s not exactly the same thing,” he noted regarding the unilateral decision by Washington that affects 75 countries.

He added that they are working intensively on the issue with the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay.

“Our embassy in Washington interacts very closely with the State Department, and I have also personally had several meetings; at the time this was happening, I was meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” he stated.

“We think it will be temporary; I am optimistic. I am simply expressing our displeasure at being on such a list,” he emphasized. He noted that the list includes countries that “work very closely with the United States, therefore the codes are quite incomprehensible.”

In Uruguay’s case, it involves about 100 visas out of 32,000 others, he explained.

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