Nearly 3,000 Cuban migrants in Costa Rica still have no way to legally reach the United States after an emergency meeting of Central American foreign ministers in San Salvador ended Tuesday without an agreement.
Costa Rica has proposed a “humanitarian corridor” through the region that would allow the migrants to pass freely through with temporary transit visas.
PEÑAS BLANCAS, Guanacaste – When he began the long journey north from Ecuador, doctor Henry Roque wore a brand-name watch, carried a suitcase full of clothing and had a hat to protect him from the sun. Twenty-two days later, the only possessions he has are the clothes on his back and a Cuban passport.
Nicaragua temporarily closed its border with Costa Rica, and riot police fired tear gas after 700 Cubans reportedly tried to peacefully cross on Sunday.
By Thursday morning, more than a thousand Cuban migrants had been rounded up in Paso Canoas after crossing the border from Panama. Another 100 milled about outside Costa Rica’s Immigration Administration north of the capital, hoping for papers authorizing them to continue on to Nicaragua.
Images of improvised rafts crossing the Straights of Florida have become iconic of Cuban immigration to the U.S. but the majority of Cubans entering the U.S. today choose the overland route through Central America — including Costa Rica — to reach family or a new life in the U.S.
The transnational network, allegedly headed by a Costa Rican woman surnamed Rodríguez Torres charged Cubans between $7,000 and $15,000 to move them into the United States.
