Ecuador Closes Open Door to Cubans
HAVANA TIMES — Ecuador informed on Thursday that it will close its open door to Cubans by requiring a visa as of December 1st. Deputy Foreign Minister Xavier Lasso said the move is geared to curb “the dangerous route” used by Cubans to travel to the United States.
While Lasso said “we are not shutting the door to Cubans,” the move to control “a type of risky migration” will make many Cubans choose a different even more dangerous way to leave the island.
The deputy minister said the decision was made to protect the Cubans and “put a stop to the migratory tendency that puts men, women and children at risk.”
Lasso was referring to the more than 3,000 mile journey north many Cubans undertake after arriving legally in Ecuador. The migrants move from country to country, often guided by people traffickers.
Currently over 3,500 Cubans are stuck in Costa Rica since Nicaragua violently closed its border to them on Nov. 15th, using the police and military.
The Cubans are welcomed in the United States if they can reach US territory, and the route via Ecuador had been seen by many as a safer journey than taking to the Caribbean Sea in rickety vessels.
Most Cubans are routinely refused tourist visas to travel by plane to the US and must find another way to get there to receive the benefits of the Cuban Adjustment Act.
Lasso said the change in immigration policy for Cubans was a commitment assumed by Ecuador at the meeting of foreign ministers Tuesday in San Salvador.
Also see: Cuban Migrant Crisis on Stage One.
Communism and it’s close cousin totalatarian socialism have proven a failure the world over. Argentinians just woke up and are trying to save themselves. If it worked, no one would put up with the faults of capitalism. But the reality is that a monetized society with a free market works better. Furthermore the false choices of socialist crusaders have been exposed. Public goods such as safety nets, education and medical care can all exist in a system with a free market. Arguments will exist as to how much taxes and how much public goods, such are things for politicians.
Will these foreign ministers continue to ignore the elephant in the room? Why doesn’t anyone choose to publicly address that the real problem is that Cubans will continue to choose to escape the Castro dictatorship no matter how difficult the escape is made for them. The socialists built a wall with armed guards in East Berlin and they still chose to escape socialism. In private, everyone knows the problem would be no worse than anywhere else if Cubans believed there was a future for them in Cuba. Until that changes, Cubans will continue to leave Cuba by whatever means necessary.