Guatemala Demands Mexico Pledge to Allow Passage of Blocked Cuban Migrants Agence France-Presse
go to original December 10, 2015

Cubans migrants chat as the sun sets in the town of La Cruz, Costa Rica. (Reuters)

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.

“Mexico must guarantee in writing that it will receive these Cuban citizens” before Guatemala can grant them passage, Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales told the television network Telemundo.

The demand is the latest in an effort by several Central American countries to find a way for Cubans fleeing their island to reach the United States, which has a long-standing policy of accepting them if they set foot on its soil.

Many Cubans fear that the United States might drop that policy — which dates to the Cold War — and stop accepting them as U.S.-Cuban relations thaw.

The growing flow of Cuban migrants through Central America became choked last month when Costa Rica dismantled a people-smuggling ring and Nicaragua, a Cuban ally, closed its border to them.

That has left 5,000 Cubans stuck in Costa Rica near the Nicaraguan border. An additional 1,200 are blocked in a remote town in Panama in what authorities there have said are unhealthy conditions.

Read the rest at The Tico Times

Related: Belize Nixes Costa Rican Proposal to Move Cubans (AmeriPublications)

Related: Cuban Migrants Still Unwanted in Central America (teleSUR)

Related: Costa Rica's President Says Cuban Migrants won't be Sent Home (Associated Press)

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