Thousands of Cubans stranded en route to USA

Alan Gomez | USA TODAY

A group of 4,500 Cubans stranded in Costa Rica as they try to reach the USA by land suffered a new blow this week when one more Central American country refused to let them pass.

Nicaraguan police forcibly stopped them from crossing the border last month, and Guatemalan officials announced last week they would not let the Cubans fly into their country to continue their journey north. Belize this week scrapped a planned "air bridge" that would have let the Cubans fly into the country and continue their march.

"Belize got us all excited, then they let us down," Jaime Aguilera Sierra, one of the stuck Cubans, said in a phone interview after learning the news. "You can see the reaction on everyone's faces. Sadness, depression, frustration and all of its synonyms."

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís said the Cubans can return home if they want, but he assured them they would be treated with dignity in his country and nobody would forcibly deport them.

"That will not happen," he said in a YouTube video this week. "We will not negotiate with the lives of any person who is migrating through our country."

Cubans have long reached the USA by braving the 90-mile journey at sea, riding rickety boats and rafts across the dangerous, shark-infested waters of the Florida Straits. They have braved that trip because the Cuban Adjustment Act allows Cuban immigrants who simply touch U.S. soil to stay and become legal permanent residents.

More Cubans started taking advantage of another route in the past year after the Cuban government eased travel restrictions for its citizens. They can fly to countries such as Ecuador without a visa, so many have flown there to start the long journey to the USA by land, assured of legal entry.

In fiscal 2014, 17,470 Cubans presented themselves at U.S. land ports along the Mexican border. In 2015, that number nearly doubled to 30,966, according to data from Customs and Border Protection.

There was little to stop the Cubans over the past year, but many of those countries are under U.S. pressure to clamp down on their borders to prevent massive waves of illegal immigration to the USA. That became an imperative last summer, when tens of thousands of children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala flooded the U.S. border, creating a political firestorm in the USA.

Many of those countries hold little sympathy for Cuban migrants because of the specialized treatment they get under U.S. law.

"The question from Central Americans is, 'So why is it that Cubans have these privileges while Salvadorans and Mexicans have to go back to their country?' " said Frank Mora, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University in Miami. "That creates certain tensions in the region."

Many of those countries have close ties with Cuba, which is experiencing a new exodus as the Cuban government tries to shore up the island's economic base. Last week, it amended its travel restrictions to make it more difficult for Cuban doctors to travel outside the country.

"A lot of this (reaction from Central American countries) may be in response to a perceived interest from Cuba," said Marc Rosenblum of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. "Cuba doesn't like to see all of that immigration to the U.S. through Central America."

The flow of Cuban migrants comes as Republicans have called for a halt to admitting Syrian refugees out of national security fears after terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Members of both parties have called for changes to the visa waiver program that allows for easy travel to the USA from dozens of countries.

Mora, a former Defense Department official in the Obama administration, said that political climate makes it difficult for the administration to make an exception for the stranded Cubans.

Guatemalan officials told Telemundo they would accept the Cubans, only if Mexico guarantees in writing that they will be allowed to cross its border and someone agreed to pay their transportation costs.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it was in regular contact with Central America and Cuba about the stranded group and hopes to find a safe resolution to their problem. But the department's statement did not say how that could be accomplished.

That leaves 4,500 people living in makeshift accommodations along Costa Rica's northern border, unsure of what their future holds. For Aguilera, it's another agonizing portion of what has already been an agonizing journey.

The 31-year-old left his hometown of Holguín, Cuba, this year and moved to Quito, Ecuador, with his girlfriend. They both had children in Cuba but left them behind to try to find a better life.

They left Ecuador just after sunset Nov. 9 in a group of 12 Cubans and started what Aguilera calls the most difficult trek of his life.

Along the way, they were captured in Colombia and held for ransom, paid bribes along the road, crossed a river teeming with human waste, ran straight into an electrified fence and saw people bloodied and bruised at every turn. They've ridden in buses, vans and boats, spent nights sleeping in horrendous conditions and at one point were left with a total of two U.S. dollar bills.

With no idea how they'll continue their journey to the USA, Aguilera said he's losing hope.

"To those in Cuba who are considering this, I would say don't do it this way," he said. "The stories I heard about this trip were ugly, but the reality has been far worse. If I would've imagined even half of what we've experienced, I wouldn't have done it."