Nicaragua, another option for some Cubans to get out of the crisis

Nicaragua has joined the limited list of options for some Cubans who want and can emigrate whether permanently or not, and take a breather from the crisis worsened by the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and the delay in economic reforms.

The decision of the government of Daniel Ortega To eliminate the visa for Cubans who wish to travel to the Central American nation, responding to a “humanitarian” measure, has penetrated hundreds of Cubans eager to travel.

Copa and Conviasa airlines in Havana, however, are not selling tickets at the moment – they are around US $ 1,700 round trip and US $ 878 one way – nor have they confirmed direct flights from Havana to Managua.

This has caused the annoyance of many Cubans who have gathered these days at the headquarters of those airlines in Havana demanding that they sell their tickets and rejecting the possibility of reimbursement of those they had already purchased.

“We are upset because we bought the ticket in January of last year and now they tell us that there are no planes and they want to return the money,” says a couple who did not want to say their name.

At his side, a woman joined the complaint and explained that “the response of the airlines is that there are no planes. What we want is to leave ”.

The Cuban case

The director of the Cuban Research Institute of the Florida International University, Jorge Duany, explained that the traffic of Cubans to Nicaragua will surely increase, either to make purchases and resell them on the island, or to travel to Mexico to cross the border with States. United.

There has already been a large flow of Cubans to the United States and other countries, aggravated by the health, economic and political crisis in Cuba and this exodus will probably intensify in the coming months, predicts the academic.

Remember that many Cubans are looking for alternatives to emigrate without visas, in view of the closure of the consular section of the United States Embassy in Havana since 2017.

In turn, Cuban professor Antonio Ajá, from the Center for International Migration Studies at the University of Havana, points out that it is not a phenomenon exclusive to Cuba, especially in the last years of the pandemic.

He exemplifies in his article “International migration, the COVID-19 and the migration of Cuba ”which in 2020 increased tensions due to the tightening of the blockade (embargo) of the United States in an attempt to further stifle the economy, society and provoke discontent in the Cuban population.

Added to this is the “antagonistic relationship and the sustained aggressiveness of the United States against Cuba,” he refers.

The crisis of 2015

The decision is intended to promote commercial exchange, tourism and humanitarian family relations, according to the Government of Ortega, one of Cuba’s allies in the region.

In 2015, the Central American nation closed its borders with Costa Rica and thousands of Cubans who intended to continue heading to the United States were stranded, creating an unprecedented crisis.

At that time, the wave of Cuban immigrants to the northern country increased exponentially due to the fear that the rapprochement between Washington and Havana – known as “thaw” – would leave out the migratory advantages of Cubans.

Two years later, then-President Barack Obama (2009-2017) canceled with an executive order the “dry feet, wet feet” policy adopted by former president William Clinton (1993-2001).

It allowed Cubans who touched land (dry feet) to obtain permanent residence one year after arriving, even if they did so illegally, while those intercepted at sea (wet feet) were returned to the island.

US encourages migration, according to Cuba

So far in 2021, 1,137 Cubans have been returned in 55 operations of this type: 46 from the United States, five from the Bahamas, three from Mexico and one from the Cayman Islands, the second head of the Identification Directorate informed the official newspaper Granma, Immigration and Aliens, Colonel Lázaro Delgado.

The Cuban government attributes the increase to the failure of the United States to deliver 20,000 visas per year, the effect of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act – which allows Cubans to apply for permanent residence in the United States for one year and one day of staying in that country. -, and the strengthening of the embargo.

The suspension of the processing and granting of immigrant and non-immigrant visas at the US Consulate in Havana and the transfer of these procedures to third countries has also encouraged illegal departures, he also denounced.

The United States reduced the activity and personnel of its Embassy in Havana to a minimum and diverted consular services to third countries after in 2017 almost thirty of its diplomats suffered some mysterious “health incidents” whose motives have not yet been clarified.

Previous exodus

Each economic crisis is followed by a wave of migration, at least that is what happened in 1965 when then-President Fidel Castro announced that anyone with a relative abroad could leave and set up the port of Camarioca (Matanzas) for this.

Then, in 1980, more than 125,000 Cubans left in just seven months through the port of Mariel – 55 kilometers from Havana – in what was the largest mass exodus to date.

In the other crisis of 1994, that of the rafters, it occurred in the middle of the “special period” when more than 30,000 people crossed the dangerous Straits of Florida in precarious boats, a stampede that forced both countries to agree on official channels to normalize the flow. migratory, according to Aha.

The academic recalls in the article “Cuban emigration. Balance in the 20th century ”that the United States has historically been the main recipient of Cubans due to its geographical proximity (90 miles) and preferential treatment for political reasons.

The neighboring nation encouraged the departure of Cubans in the Cuban Refugee Program in the early 1960s and the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Law, currently in force, he added.