Nicaragua bloquea ruta clave utilizada por migrantes cubanos para llegar a EEUU – Chicago Tribune
By MEGAN JANETSKY
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — Nicaragua has blocked Cubans from entering the country without visas, making it a key route for Cuban migration to the United States at a time when Washington has seen the Caribbean island in economic decline.
The Nicaraguan government confirmed to The Associated Press that it is suspending the execution of allowing Cubans to enter the Central American nation without a visa.
With this, it allowed access for Cubans to a country that, for a long time, was transformed into a bridge for Caribbean migrants traveling to the United States. In recent years, Cuban migrants have flown into Nicaragua and met with traffickers, who then helped them migrate north through Central America and Mexico to the eastern border.
Experts have learned that Nicaragua is exploiting its open doors to people from countries like Cuba and Haiti as a way to fight its American adversary, the United States, to weaponize migrants who have problems in their countries.
But the change has come with the medium pressure of the government of US President Donald Trump on Latin American nations with the end of those aligned with their vision of the hemisphere, especially on migration and security.
After a U.S. military operation toppled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, the Trump administration began to step up pressure, particularly on adversary governments like Cuba and Nicaragua.
At the end of the year, Trump threatened to impose tensions on the countries that exploit oil in Cuba, introducing to the island a deep economic and energy crisis that will probably be caused by the migration of a nation that has registered personalities in the countries. recent years.
At a time when the Trump administration is raising a controversy over migration crackdowns and largely eliminating access to asylum along the border, migration to the United States has reached a historic low, but Nicaragua’s new rules pose extreme barriers for migrants. Cubans who hope to go to estadounidense territory in the future.
An option that is also available in Guyana, a small South American nation that also has Cuban trips to the United States. From Guyana, Cuban migrants venture through the Darién wilderness that divides Colombia and Panama, and then advance across the American continent.
Over time, migrants with few options available also made precarious journeys by boat from Cuba to the Florida coast.
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This story was translated into English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
