Six Hundred More Cubans Arrive in Panama, in route to USA

By Progreso Semanal

Cuban migrants on the Colombian-Panamanian border.
Cuban migrants on the Colombian-Panamanian border. Photo: La Prensa/Isabel Castro

HAVANA TIMES — The town has around 600 inhabitants, a Panamanian Immigration office, a Colombian consulate and the headquarters of the National Police for the Guna Yala region.

In recent weeks about 2,000 Cubans have passed through town and now 600 others have arrived. The news did not surprise Progreso because yesterday when we talked with one of the Cubans stuck at the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border, we inquired if he knew anything of more Cubans on their way.

His response was: “I wouldn’t be surprised if more come because the passage is still not prohibited. In case there are people on the way, it’s likely they will arrive here” at the Costa Rican – Nicaraguan border.

The Panamanian daily La Prensa published a report today on the arrival of this new wave of Cuban migrants titled: “Some 600 Cuban immigrants saturate Puerto Obaldia”.

“The intention of these immigrants is take a boat and travel the Gunas coast up to the city of Colon, where they would take a bus and move on to the capital.

“The tranquility was once again disrupted at the border town of Puerto Obaldia, in the region Guna Yala, on the Caribbean coast and 250 kilometers east of the city of Panama.

“While there have not been incidents of violence, a lot of excitement was riled up with the arrival of the 600 Cuban immigrants who entered from the Colombian jungle to touch Panamanian soil, in order to cross Central America and reach the United States in pursuit of the American dream”, the man told La Prensa.