Cuban migrants (44) arrive in Honduras, 6 others still missing
HAVANA TIMES – A total of 44 Cubans, five women and 39 men , arrived Monday to Sangrelaya, on the north coast of Honduras, in two small boats, the local police reported.
The Cubans were in route to the United States, where they have relatives and friends, especially in Miami.
According to AFP, the Honduran immigration authorities traditionally extended to Cubans arriving illegally by sea permission to remain between 15 and 30 days.
The arrival of Cubans to Honduran beaches generally increases between December and May, when there is little wind or rain in the Caribbean. In the past eight years over 1,600 Cubans have used this, who later made ??it to Miami.
Meanwhile, bad news came on Christmas Day for the hopes of finding six Cubans whose small boat capsized en route to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic, as the US Coast Guard called off its four day search at sea, noted Café Fuerte.
The Coast Guard Service announced Wednesday that it had called off the search for possible survivors, and everything points to a new Cuban tragedy at sea. The group, which left on Dec. 17 from a beach in the southeast of the Dominican Republic, was carrying three men and three women.”
“While the fate of people may never be known or what happened to them, our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones during this difficult time,” said, Capt. Drew Pearson, Sector San Juan commander in the statement calling off the search.
The world is far from a perfect place. Having lived in a foreign country myself, there is always an adjustment period for any emigrant. It helps to have money, education and in my case, an American passport, on my side. Still, it was not easy. The hardships you see everyday in your job as an immigration attorney must be heart-wrenching but, at a minimum, you can take relief that these are hardships that come as a result of an economic system that favors the well-prepared and well-connected. I remain critical of the causes behind Cuban immigration because it is self-inflicted hardships and based on a system that is designed to maintain literally a few hundred cadre in control of millions of people. I believe Cuba will always be a poor country but at the very least, with a different form of government, Cuba can become a free country.
“Balseros” (estimate to 2003) = 77,833 drowned at
sea
Cuba Archive’s Truth and Memory Project documents deaths and
disappearances resulting from the Cuban revolution and studies transitional
issues related to truth, memory and justice. This project seeks to compel people
and nations to help Cubans peacefully attain their rightful freedoms, foster a
culture of respect for life and the rule of law, and honor the memory of those
who’ve paid the highest price. For news and updates also see
http://cubaarchive.org/home/images/stories/1.25.2012_update.pdf
As an immigration attorney, I can tell you the answer to your absurd, but all too common query.Every week I see poor campesinos, unemployed workers,and hopeless youth from all over Latin America, particularly Mexico and the rest of Central America. They are fleeing the sacrafice zones of capitalism to try to eke out an existence in the Empire, picking tomatoes, cutting lawns, making pizza, construction, prostitution.. They have no choice but to offer themselves up for brutal exploitation in order to insure at least a subsistance to their families back home. If that includes lethal doses of pesticides,literally back-breaking labor,sexual exploitation, and other health risks, too bad. They have no choice. Dominican and Haitian balseros face the same risk as one leaving from Cojimar. The over-land journey from Central America is worse. Moreover, these refugees from capitalism risk more for less than a Cuban does, indicating a higher level of desperation. A Cuba gets parole and a work permit the day he gets here, with a greencard after a year of physical presence if he applies. Havingf a work permit makes a world of difference in the type of job you can get. A Mexican or Guatemalan indocumentado, gets absolutely nothing. Not now, not in 10 years. I see not a few Cubans who regret their decisions to come to the US. I never hear the same from Central Americans.
Why don’t those commenters to HT who claim that “feral’ capitalism and the “genocidal” US embargo have been the impetus for all that ails the failed Castro regime simply volunteer to trade places with those Cubans who would rather risk their lives in these dangerous sea crossings than continue to live among the “nobel” Cuban people. If the US system is so bad and the Castro system is so good, why suffer unnecessarily. It would appear that there are at least 44 Cubans in Honduras who would trade lives with these clearly unhappy folks. Any takers?