International
‘You lose hope’: Cuban exodus to US largest in island’s history
| By AFP | Gerard Martinez with Rigoberto Diaz in Havana |
Exhausted by “surviving instead of living” in Cuba, David Gonzalez set his sights on a new life in the United States.
In early 2022, he joined thousands of Cubans whose migration has amounted to the largest exodus in the Caribbean nation’s history.
Gonzalez, a 34-year-old barber, said he could no longer bear the hardships of a country going through its worst economic crisis since the 1990s, or the communist regime he had never embraced.
In Cuba, “you lose hope,” he told AFP from Miami, Florida, which he reached after a weeks-long odyssey across multiple countries.
That hopelessness, shared by many young people in Cuba, has pushed emigration to the United States to the highest levels on record.
In the year from December 2021 to 2022, border authorities recorded more than 227,000 instances of Cubans illegally entering US territory.
That figure exceeds those of two previous mass departures: the Mariel boatlift, when 125,000 Cubans left for the United States in 1980, and the 1994 departure of 34,000 people to US shores within a month, said Jorge Duany, a Cuba expert at Florida International University.
‘My biggest fear’
Gonzalez’s journey started with a flight to Nicaragua.
The government of the Central American country, an ally of the Havana regime, removed visa requirements for Cubans in November 2021, making Managua the first stop on the road to the United States for most migrants from the island.
The journey cost Gonzalez some $7,000: $3,500 for the airfare and another $3,500 for smugglers to take him overland from Nicaragua to the United States — a huge sum for the average Cuban salary of 3,768 pesos a month, about $157.
Gonzalez scrounged half the money by selling his motorcycle and other belongings. A friend sent him the rest from Miami.
From his 30-day trip through Central America and Mexico, he remembers above all the long rides with dozens of people crammed on a bus or in the back of a truck.
But it wasn’t the prospect of thirst, lack of air, unbearable heat during the day and biting cold at night that scared him the most on the journey.
“My biggest fear was that I would be deported to Cuba,” he said.
Danger at sea
Others choose a different route to the United States no less rife with danger, risking their lives to travel the 90 miles (145 kilometers) of water that separates Cuba and Florida often in makeshift vessels.
On Christmas Day, 15 people were picked up in the Florida Keys, where dozens of Cubans arrive every week.
Mariana de la Caridad Fernandez made the journey in November.
The 20-year-old and her sister Yaneris, 31, had been sentenced in Cuba to four years of house arrest and seven years in prison respectively for participating in demonstrations that shook the country in July 2021.
Having been on the run in Cuba for a month, they decided to make for Miami, where their mother lives.
The sea was calm during the 16-hour crossing with their dog, Toby, and 40 others packed into the boat.
“We panicked a bit when we arrived in the early hours of the morning and had to get off the boat and swim to get to land,” Fernandez said.
A border patrol immediately detained the sisters, but released them on parole, giving them temporary leave to stay in the country.
Aiming to apply for political asylum, they hope to legalize their status under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans to apply for residency a year and a day from when they entered the United States.
‘See a future’
Others haven’t been so lucky.
Many who are picked up in boats by the US Coast Guard are quickly sent back to Cuba, unless they prove their lives are in danger.
Since October 1, the Coast Guard has detained over 3,700 Cubans, more than half the number taken into custody between October 2021 and the same month in 2022.
Then there are the untold numbers of Cubans who die at sea.
In April, a boat carrying 14 men capsized three days after departing Cuba. Only five managed to swim back to the island.
The nephew of Miriela, a Cuban woman who preferred not to give her last name, was one of those who disappeared in the wreck.
“It pains us not knowing what happened to him,” she said.
For Gonzalez, the risks he took to reach Miami were worth it.
Now also on parole, he hopes to avoid deportation until he can try for residency via the Cuban Adjustment Act.
“In eight months I already have what I didn’t have in Cuba,” he said.
“It’s not just the material comforts, but that you can see a future.”
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
Mulino warns Trump: Darién is U.S.’s ‘other border’ in call for bilateral solutions to migration
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
-
Central America3 days agoBukele begins official visit to Costa Rica based on security, cooperation and trade
-
Central America2 days agoNicaraguan Naval Force seizes cocaine on Pacific Coast, suspects escape
-
Central America2 days agoEl Salvador delivers aid to Costa Rica amid severe flooding and red alerts
-
Central America2 days agoBukele urges Costa Rica to reform prison system amid rising crime rates
-
International2 days agoMarco Rubio considered for Secretary of State in Trump administration, reports say
-
International2 days agoSheinbaum pledges support for mexican migrants amid U.S. border enforcement plans
-
International3 days agoDaniel Ortega turns 79: 29 in power, 17 “governing from below”, and 7 in prison
-
International3 days agoLe procureur vénézuélien dénonce une campagne visant à présenter les “criminels” comme prisonniers politiques
-
International3 days agoLes migrants qui ont été retenus en Albanie par le gouvernement de Meloni arriveront ce soir en Italie
-
International4 days agoShooting at Tuskegee University leaves one dead and several injured
-
International2 days agoElon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency
-
International1 day agoMálaga paralyzed by new storm as torrential rains hit Spain
-
International3 days agoA US flight to Haiti is deflected after being shot when approaching Port-au-Prince
-
International2 days agoPresident-elect Trump chooses Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense
-
International1 day agoSeven bodies found with signs of torture in Sinaloa
-
International1 day agoHezbollah launches explosive drone strike on Israel’s defense headquarters
-
International3 days agoIrish mobster Hutch is rending for general elections after arrest in Spain
-
International1 day agoEcuadorian judge orders preventive detention for nine inmates after deadly prison clashes
-
Internacionales2 days ago
Mexico deploys 12,000 security agents to Guerrero amid escalating violence
-
Internacionales4 days agoTropical storm Rafael weakens over gulf of Mexico after devastating Cuba
-
International1 day agoSantiago Uribe cleared of homicide and paramilitary charges
-
International3 days agoTrump appoints an ally without experience in the sector to the environmental agency
-
International1 day agoTrump nominates Matt Gaetz as attorney general
-
International1 day agoMarco Rubio to become first latino U.S. diplomacy chief under Trump
-
International3 days agoThe court of El Salvador postpones the preliminary hearing for the massacre of Jesuit parents in 1989
-
Central America10 hours agoMulino warns Trump: Darién is U.S.’s ‘other border’ in call for bilateral solutions to migration
-
International10 hours ago
Aemet downgrades rainfall alert as heavy rains ease in Spain
-
International10 hours agoDrug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
-
International10 hours agoIsraeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
-
Central America10 hours agoTen dead in Panama due to storms causing over $100 million in damages
-
International10 hours agoVenezuelan opposition activist dies in custody amid allegations of repressive crisis
-
International10 hours agoMaria Corina Machado sees clear signs for Venezuela after Trump’s victory
-
International10 hours agoPope Francis meets former Gaza hostages