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World Desk, Delhi Magazine: Cuba is facing the largest population exodus in decades. A quarter of a million Cubans fled the country last year alone. Over the past two months, the US Coast Guard has intercepted three thousand migrants at sea. The White House plans to resume consular services in Havana and issue at least 20,000 visas starting in the new year. American authorities could thus limit the number of dangerous voyages at sea and also the migratory pressure on the border with Mexico.
Even during the reign of the feared communist leader Fidel Castro, during the biggest migration crises, not so many Cubans fled as now. Last year it was a quarter of a million inhabitants, which is a full two percent of the population. They leave the country on boats bound for Florida and enter the United States via the US border with Mexico.
Cubans flee mainly because of poverty. Poor living conditions in a country where electricity is a success for 13 hours a day have been exacerbated by the pandemic and Hurricane Ian. The communist regime also complains about the impact of American sanctions.
“The blockade and restrictions limit business both for the US and on our side,” points out the current president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez.
Seven Cubans killed in collision with Coast Guard
In an effort to calm the migration crisis, the Biden administration is easing tough sanctions imposed by previous President Donald Trump. For example, it lifted restrictions on the amount of money Cubans can send to their families from the United States. Havana, in turn, began to receive planes with deported migrants.
Fleeing for a better life in America also has its victims – in October, for example, seven Cubans drowned in a collision with the Cuban Coast Guard. This year alone, the Americans intercepted over six thousand migrants from Cuba at sea.
Castro’s successor in Moscow
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez visited Russia three weeks ago. He found himself in Moscow at the very time when Russian troops were bombing Ukraine. The highest representative of the island state was given a warm reception, which included the unveiling of a statue of communist dictator Fidel Castro in Moscow.
“I was lucky, dear friends, to have met Fidel Castro several times,” Russian leader Vladimir Putin said during a diplomatic visit.
An icon of resistance to communists came to support the dissidents
The day before, on November 21, Cuban dissidents arrived during a visit to Mexico to support the face of Poland’s struggle against the communist dictatorship – former Polish president Lech Wałęsa.
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“Show me the only country where communism as a system works,” thundered the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate to journalists. Cuban dissident Alejandro Gutiérrez Boronat pointed out that his homeland is also the country with the largest number of political prisoners.