CUBAN REFUGEES AND THE CHESSBOARD

Published by El Nuevo Herald on January 18, 2016

Humanitarian crises in Latin America have been a lot and for various reasons; however, only one has been originated in 57 years of a harsh dictatorship.

We refer to the Cuban immigration crisis that keeps some 8,000 citizens of that country in Costa Rica, 10,000 in Ecuador, 1,000 in Panama, 700 in Colombia and an unknown number in Mexico (estimated at 1,000), formed by a group of people that have not yet achieved their entry into the United States.

Indeed, the suffering of these migrants has been enormous.

They began with the purchase of air ticket Cuba-Ecuador at about $ 440, but not before having sold their few belongings in Cuba and have borrowed money from family and friends, inside and outside the country. Also, they have renounced to their jobs and schools. Everything was in order to make some temporary accommodation in Quito and having some food to start their long and arduous land and sea crossing to Tapachula-Mexico, from where they could legally enter US territory.

The journey through Colombia was particularly dangerous, dodging wild animals and poisonous snakes, highwaymen and con artists by trade, who were charged twice by crossing them in rivers.

Most who managed to arrive in Costa Rica were trapped there by the refusal of Nicaragua to continue its path. Thanks to the noble management of Costa Rica, an airlift was achieved to El Salvador, which costs $ 555 for each Cuban, exorbitant figure for them in view of the above expenses.

El Salvador and Guatemala provide military security to Cubans during passage through its territory, but not Mexico, who also gives them only 20 days leave to abandon their land. Meanwhile, they are subject to attacks by criminal gangs and drug traffickers, and many of them have not yet managed to enter US territory, being in legal limbo and therefore subject to deportation by the Mexican government.

Throughout this long and dangerous journey was chosen by these thousands of Cubans who chose to risk that way before facing the uncertainty of the Caribbean Sea, which we know serves as a grave to thousands of Cuban rafters who perished trying to reach land of freedom, invoking an interpretation of the law known as "dry feet, wet feet".

It's very curious the fact that Ecuador has allowed free arrival of Cubans without visas before December 1, 2015. It seems that it was a preconceived stampede.

What purpose will seek the Castro regime with this manipulation?

Obviously, it seems that the regime wants to force a settlement to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which granted immigration benefits and financial support for Cubans who arrive on US territory.

And why the Castro regime wants to eliminate the Cuban Adjustment Act?

In light of the renewed US-Cuba relations, massive cash remittances by Cuban US to their relatives on the island it would be hindered if thousands of citizens continue their exodus.That is, the reconstruction of the impoverished and poor Cuban economy requires not only money capital, but also requires human capital able to pay taxes.

The issuance of sovereign bonds, the return of a commercial register and the reprinting of land registers, together with the mass circulation of the dollar on the island and the increasing involvement of banks, could lead to a kind of economic model Chinese Cuban style .

The end of communism would be very close then. Something that has not yet happened in China. However, the Asian idiosyncrasy is different from the Spanish. There tend to revere their rulers as gods.

From 1960 to 1962, 14,000 Cuban children emigrated to the US under the project known as Peter Pan. In 49 years, more than a million Cubans have benefited from the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.

However, many politicians in the US that, somehow, they or their parents have benefited from these laws, are now against giving shelter to 20,000 Cubans who are in transit. In other words, "I am Cuban, I benefited, but I do not want others to be benefited also." What kind of moral is this ?

And what is more important: the current Cuban migrants are not guilty. They are just chips on a chessboard.

Benjamin F. DeYurre

Economist and journalist.