Costa Rica Agrees To Give Safe Conduct To Cubans Detained On The Border With Panama

Costa Rica Agrees To Give Safe Conduct To Cubans Detained On The Border
With Panama / 14ymedio
Posted on November 15, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2015 — Costa Rica agreed to grant
humanitarian visas to more than a thousand Cubans who have been held at
the border with Panama for some days, according to a report this
Saturday in El Nuevo Herald. The announcement was made ​​Friday night by
the Costa Rican government, which clarifies that the measure is only for
Cubans already in their territory and that it is adamant about its
decision to close its border to citizens of Cuba who try to enter
without a transit visa to the United States.

The crisis in the Paso Canoas border crossing on the border with Panama
was complicated by the arrival of more Cubans, now numbering about
1,400, whom Costa Rica wishes to deport to the neighboring country and
who, on Friday afternoon continued blocking the main highway.

The measure seeks to cut off the business of organized crime human
trafficking, said the Director of Immigration of Costa Rica, Kattia
Rodríguez.

Before Wednesday, Costa Rica allowed entry to Cubans to process them as
refugees. But Cubans never followed the procedures and always continued
to travel to Nicaragua, the rest of Central America and Mexico, on their
way from Ecuador to the United States.

Rodriguez told El Nuevo Herald that the crisis arose after Costa Rica
disrupted a network last Tuesday dedicated to the illicit trafficking of
Cubans. For each Cuban crossing from Ecuador to the United States, the
mafias charge $7,500 to $15,000, she remarked, detailing that the flow
between January and September of 2015 was 12,166 Cubans, compared to
5,144 in 2014, and 2,549 in 2013.

Source: Costa Rica Agrees To Give Safe Conduct To Cubans Detained On The
Border With Panama / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/costa-rica-agrees-to-give-safe-conduct-to-cubans-detained-on-the-border-with-panama-14ymedio/