A summit of Central American leaders in El Salvador on Friday failed to break a regional impasse over the fate of 5,000 U.S.-bound Cuban migrants blocked in Costa Rica for weeks. Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís left the summit before its close without making a promised speech on the issue.
Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solís’ frustration with the Cuban migrant crisis was clear in his remarks during a news conference Tuesday in Cuba.
Guatemala said Wednesday it needed a pledge from Mexico that it would allow in thousands of Cuban migrants headed to the U.S. before it can let them transit its territory from Costa Rica or Panama.
Costa Rica’s options for dealing with the more than 4,000 Cuban migrants stuck in the country on their way to the U.S. are growing fewer by the day, leaving the government to consider arranging flights for the migrants.
Ecuador will begin requiring visas for Cubans starting Dec. 1 in an attempt to dissuade them from using the country as a springboard to get to the U.S. The move is the latest in an ongoing diplomatic and humanitarian crisis in which several thousand Cuban migrants are camped out at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.
LA CRUZ, Guanacaste – Cuban migrants aiming for a new life in the United States but stranded in Costa Rica by a Nicaragua border firmly closed to them expressed mounting anger and desperation on Thursday.
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.
