Costa Rica's president on Friday saw off one of the last planes carrying departing Cuban migrants, resolving a three-month period in which nearly 8,000 US-bound Cubans were stranded in his country.
"You are going full of dreams, but have also gone through very tough situations," President Luis Guillermo Solis told the Cubans before they boarded their flight in San Jose to Mexico.
The Cubans' passage through Central America had been blocked since mid-November, when Nicaragua -- a Cuban ally -- barred them from entering its territory.
That forced Costa Rica to negotiate "air bridges" over Nicaragua to El Salvador and Mexico that, from January, started flying out some of the 7,800 Cubans who piled up on its territory with no easy path north.
Panama, which was also forced to host around 2,000 Cubans when Costa Rica in turn closed its border to new arrivals, has also organized flights for them to Mexico.
Unlike other Latin American migrants, Cubans get relatively easy access to the United States when they cross a land border. A Cold War-era law puts them on a fast-track to American residency.
The number of Cubans aiming for the US has spiked over the past year, with many fearing that a thaw in US-Cuban relations underway will eventually end America's open-door policy for them.
According to official figures, 7,802 Cubans were given temporary visas for Costa Rica since mid-November.
Of them, 4,350 took the flights that they were required to pay for themselves, at a cost of between $555 and $790 each.
Another 3,450 were believed to have used "coyotes" -- people smugglers -- to clandestinely get them through Nicaragua and other Central American nations. The coyotes demanded around $1,000 each, according to a report in the newspaper La Nacion.
"People-trafficking is a tragedy for all of humanity," Solis told reporters at San Jose's airport.
"It's a dreadful business, more lucrative than drug-trafficking," he said.
He said that a small number of Cubans were still in Costa Rica and unable to make the journey north for different reasons.
But he said the "hard work" of supporting them and getting most of them out had been concluded satisfactorily.
Costa Rica’s president on Friday saw off one of the last planes carrying departing Cuban migrants, resolving a three-month period in which nearly 8,000 US-bound Cubans were stranded in his country.
“You are going full of dreams, but have also gone through very tough situations,” President Luis Guillermo Solis told the Cubans before they boarded their flight in San Jose to Mexico.
The Cubans’ passage through Central America had been blocked since mid-November, when Nicaragua — a Cuban ally — barred them from entering its territory.
That forced Costa Rica to negotiate “air bridges” over Nicaragua to El Salvador and Mexico that, from January, started flying out some of the 7,800 Cubans who piled up on its territory with no easy path north.
Panama, which was also forced to host around 2,000 Cubans when Costa Rica in turn closed its border to new arrivals, has also organized flights for them to Mexico.
Unlike other Latin American migrants, Cubans get relatively easy access to the United States when they cross a land border. A Cold War-era law puts them on a fast-track to American residency.
The number of Cubans aiming for the US has spiked over the past year, with many fearing that a thaw in US-Cuban relations underway will eventually end America’s open-door policy for them.
According to official figures, 7,802 Cubans were given temporary visas for Costa Rica since mid-November.
Of them, 4,350 took the flights that they were required to pay for themselves, at a cost of between $555 and $790 each.
Another 3,450 were believed to have used “coyotes” — people smugglers — to clandestinely get them through Nicaragua and other Central American nations. The coyotes demanded around $1,000 each, according to a report in the newspaper La Nacion.
“People-trafficking is a tragedy for all of humanity,” Solis told reporters at San Jose’s airport.
“It’s a dreadful business, more lucrative than drug-trafficking,” he said.
He said that a small number of Cubans were still in Costa Rica and unable to make the journey north for different reasons.
But he said the “hard work” of supporting them and getting most of them out had been concluded satisfactorily.
