A group of 180 Cuban migrants is to fly from Costa Rica to El Salvador on Tuesday, blazing a trail thousands of their compatriots stranded in Central America hope will see all of them securing new lives in the United States.
The "pilot" scheme worked out between the governments of several countries in the region will see the 180 arriving in El Salvador to be put on buses to cross neighboring Guatemala to the Mexican border.
They will then have a 20-day Mexican visa to find their own way to the border with America.
They are allowed to cross that frontier under a US law passed nearly 50 years ago, during the Cold War, that specifically welcomes refugees fleeing Communist-ruled Cuba.
If no problems arise, a second flight with a similar number will leave Costa Rica a week later.
"We are doing this in stages. We need to create experience, to build confidence. We need to guarantee that all goes well," said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez.
- Closed land borders -
The hope for nearly 8,000 other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica is that the air bridge will continue afterwards.
The main condition to get a place on the flights is that the migrants pay for plane-and-bus trip themselves: $535 each.
That is a fortune for Cubans coming from a homeland where the monthly state wage is a meager $20.
Most of the migrants sold everything they had to pay for flights to Ecuador and for "coyotes" -- slang for people smugglers -- to get them across Colombia and into Central America.
That clandestine path got blocked in November, when Costa Rica busted a people-smuggling ring they had been depending on, then Nicaragua -- a Cuban ally -- steadfastly refused to let any of them cross its border.
That bottleneck on the narrow Central American isthmus saw the thousands of Cubans pile into Costa Rica with no route north.
A frustrated Costa Rica itself blocked the entry into its territory of any more Cubans from December 19, leading to Panama finding itself caring for 2,000 Cuban migrants unable to cross the border.
Costa Rica pleaded with other Central American countries to accept an air bridge skipping over Nicaragua to allow the Cubans on its soil a way out.
After multiple rejections -- including initially from El Salvador -- the nascent flight deal emerged two weeks ago, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration.
- 'Joy' over flight -
A plane owned by the Colombia-based airline Avianca has been chartered to fly the group of Cubans out of Costa Rica's northern city of Liberia late Tuesday, at 10:25 pm (0425 GMT).
An hour later, it will disembark in El Salvador's capital. Buses will take the Cubans to the town of La Hachadura, on the border with Guatemala, then across that country to Tecun Uman, on the border with Mexico.
Other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica believe the air-and-land experiment will eventually lead to them also making it to America.
"It was a moment of great joy when they told us some of us will be able to get out. I wanted to be in the first group but I wasn't in charge of that decision," said Henry Roque, a 42-year-old Cuban doctor.
Roque intends to get to Miami, where his brother is living. He found himself stuck in Costa Rica when Nicaragua closed its border and posted police and soldiers along it.
A group of 180 Cuban migrants is to fly from Costa Rica to El Salvador on Tuesday, blazing a trail thousands of their compatriots stranded in Central America hope will see all of them securing new lives in the United States.
The “pilot” scheme worked out between the governments of several countries in the region will see the 180 arriving in El Salvador to be put on buses to cross neighboring Guatemala to the Mexican border.
They will then have a 20-day Mexican visa to find their own way to the border with America.
They are allowed to cross that frontier under a US law passed nearly 50 years ago, during the Cold War, that specifically welcomes refugees fleeing Communist-ruled Cuba.
If no problems arise, a second flight with a similar number will leave Costa Rica a week later.
“We are doing this in stages. We need to create experience, to build confidence. We need to guarantee that all goes well,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez.
– Closed land borders –
The hope for nearly 8,000 other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica is that the air bridge will continue afterwards.
The main condition to get a place on the flights is that the migrants pay for plane-and-bus trip themselves: $535 each.
That is a fortune for Cubans coming from a homeland where the monthly state wage is a meager $20.
Most of the migrants sold everything they had to pay for flights to Ecuador and for “coyotes” — slang for people smugglers — to get them across Colombia and into Central America.
That clandestine path got blocked in November, when Costa Rica busted a people-smuggling ring they had been depending on, then Nicaragua — a Cuban ally — steadfastly refused to let any of them cross its border.
That bottleneck on the narrow Central American isthmus saw the thousands of Cubans pile into Costa Rica with no route north.
A frustrated Costa Rica itself blocked the entry into its territory of any more Cubans from December 19, leading to Panama finding itself caring for 2,000 Cuban migrants unable to cross the border.
Costa Rica pleaded with other Central American countries to accept an air bridge skipping over Nicaragua to allow the Cubans on its soil a way out.
After multiple rejections — including initially from El Salvador — the nascent flight deal emerged two weeks ago, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration.
– ‘Joy’ over flight –
A plane owned by the Colombia-based airline Avianca has been chartered to fly the group of Cubans out of Costa Rica’s northern city of Liberia late Tuesday, at 10:25 pm (0425 GMT).
An hour later, it will disembark in El Salvador’s capital. Buses will take the Cubans to the town of La Hachadura, on the border with Guatemala, then across that country to Tecun Uman, on the border with Mexico.
Other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica believe the air-and-land experiment will eventually lead to them also making it to America.
“It was a moment of great joy when they told us some of us will be able to get out. I wanted to be in the first group but I wasn’t in charge of that decision,” said Henry Roque, a 42-year-old Cuban doctor.
Roque intends to get to Miami, where his brother is living. He found himself stuck in Costa Rica when Nicaragua closed its border and posted police and soldiers along it.
