Cubans Remain in Limbo for Lack of Agreement
HAVANA TIMES — A meeting of 11 foreign ministers of Latin America, convened today to solve the immigration crisis of over 3,100 Cubans in Costa Rica, ended without agreement in El Salvador, reported dpa.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Manuel Gonzalez, lamented the “lack of results of this long effort”, and accused Nicaragua of refusing to resolve the conflict by maintaining “unchanged” its rejection to allowing the Cubans to transit through its territory.
Since the ’80s the government of Nicaragua spoke of his brotherhood with the people of Cuba, which has provided invaluable assistance in the areas of education, health and others to the Central American country.
More than 3,100 Cubans await the opportunity to continue their trip to the United States that began in Ecuador several weeks ago. Of these, almost 2,000 are waiting on the northern border, after Nicaragua refused to allow them passage, calling out riot police and the army to stop them.
Foreign Minister Gonzalez called on the other governments to “move from rhetoric to action” and take urgent action to help the Cubans reach the United States through a humanitarian corridor.
However, in turn, Nicaraguan deputy foreign minister, Denis Moncada, said Managua’s “position remains unchanged” in the sense that it will not open its doors to the migrants, and demanding Costa Rica “remove” the Cubans from the border area.
Moncada accused the Costa Rican government of “violating the sovereignty” of Nicaragua to supposedly encourage a flood of migrants and thus pose a “threat to national security”.
In turn, the Costa Rican Foreign Minister accused Nicaragua of “trying to mix one thing with another,” referring to the border conflicts between San Jose and Managua dating back several years.
Almost 2,000 Cubans arrived to the northern border of Costa Rica on November 15th after traveling from Ecuador, the only country on the continent that receives the islanders without requiring a visa. But while trying to cross into Nicaragua, they were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets by the military and police, whose troops are still guarding the border.
“We have always been in solidarity with migrants, especially the Nicaraguan migration south. Costa Rica has received in solidarity and has incorporated hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans to its economy,” said the chancellor.
Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said his country calls for “a comprehensive and structural solution” to the serious problem of Cuban migrants, although the meeting was apparently reduced to “bilateral responses” of the governments involved.
He supported the Nicaraguan position in the sense that Cubans have the same right to be benefited by an immigration law of the United States (which allows them to legalize their stay in the country), as thousands of Central Americans who try daily to realize their “American dream “.
Martinez said that El Salvador will ask the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support Costa Rica in shelter conditions for Cubans who are in their territory, and decrease the risk of a humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, more cubans continue to arrive by the hundreds at the southern Costa Rican border with Panama, heading nort
Add decendants (children) like Ted Cruz & Marco Rubio types and we are easily at 4+…
Somewhere between 2 and 3 million.
Well, give me your constructive figure or should we just rely on the north american liberal media?
Mack, still waiting for your sources to add up to 4 million. We have never seen such a figure.
US census alone has over (2) two million in the US (mostly Miami & New Jersey). Take South & Central America, Canada and Europe and you are easily at 4…
Mack, could you give us a source on the “over 4 million” figure.
Over four (4) million Cuban immigrants have turned their backs on that failed revolution (and continue to abandon the revolution) which has brought the masses nothing more than poverty & despair while bringing wealth & priviledge to its dictators…
Why are you socialists always looking for someone else to pay for your mistakes. US immigration policy says that Cubans must arrive on US soil in order to benefit. Paying for Cubans to come to the US from Nicaragua is a ridiculous suggestion. You should read the comment posted by Anti-imperialist below.
The Anti Castro and the anti Cuba elements in the world would blame the Nicaraguan government when the problem is and was created by the wet foot, dry foot policy of America in its attempt to create a crisis for the Cuban Government and Revolution. Nicaragua is a Sovereign country and has the right to deny anyone entry into its territory. America should be the one to rectify the situation by sending transportation for these stranded people who believe that the so-called land of the free and home of the brave is flowing with milk and honey. As I said in an earlier posting, A Revolution is built by brave, honourable, determined and principled men. There will always be those who believe that the grass is greener on the other side. There will always be those who will fall prey to the propaganda spewed out by the enemy of the Revolution; these are the faint hearted,the gullible, the weak spirited, those who do not possess the backbone and the courage to defend anything.
Lots of dirty deals done to Nicaragua during the U.S.-sponsored war in the early- and mid-1980’s. Now it is payback time. I’m sure the Cubans could be sent on their way after the U.S. offers a suitable gratuity to Nicaragua; either that, or the U.S. (or their families in Miami, etc.) could send a freighter to Costa Rica and Panama to pick them up. Of course all those heading North who don’t have “wet-foot, dry-foot” privileges are on their own, even those who have to suffer under the un-elected dictatorship in Honduras, or those in Mexico who are murdered without consequences by their local, state and national government, (e.g. like the 43 normal college students murdered recently, or several journalists who have looked into the latter).
A friend in Nicaragua has written me that many Nicaraguans are shocked at the treatment the Cuban migrants are receiving from the Ortega government. Not just because of the lack of humanity shown but because of several decades of assistance in education and health care that Nicaragua has received from Cuba. Likewise, the Nicaraugans complain when they are mistreated in Central America and Mexico en route to an illegal entry into the USA. It’s all pretty hypocritical to me.