San Ramon, Costa Rica
(CNN)Their dream is to reach the United States. But about 5,000 Cuban migrants
have been stranded in Central America for the last month because two countries,
Nicaragua and Guatemala, have refused to give them free transit through their
territory.
CNN reached the
migrants at a government shelter in San Ramon, a town about two hours northwest
of San Jose, the capital. Most say they are desperate, even though the Costa
Rican government has been feeding them and housing them in shelters.
Armando Quesada, one of
about 300 at the shelter in San Ramon, said the group is running out of
options. "Being smuggled by traffickers is not what we wanted, but we've
been seriously considering that alternative since last night," Quesada
said.
The largest group of
Cubans has been staying at a shelter in La Cruz, in Guanacaste province, which
borders Nicaragua.
First chance in decades
to leave Cuba
Cuba has recently eased
travel restrictions, allowing many in the island nation to travel for the first
time in decades.
Most of the Cuban
migrants now stranded in Costa Rica started their journey in Ecuador, a country
that does not require visas for Cubans. From Ecuador the migrants traveled
north by land through Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica.
The problem started
when the first waves entered Nicaragua. The government sent police and soldiers
to not only detain them but send them back to Costa Rica in buses. Now
Nicaragua has sealed its borders, and the migrants say they don't want to stay
in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican President
Luis Guillermo Solís eased the migrants' worries by reiterating that his
country will not send them back to Cuba in a message posted Wednesday on
YouTube.
"Some of you are
worried that the government of Costa Rica might negotiate a forced return of all
of you to Cuba. That's not going to happen. I'm not going to do that,"
Solís said.
'A very sad situation'
The president also
criticized Nicaragua's decision to block the Cubans.
"It has certainly
been regrettable that that government of Nicaragua, in a move that is still
incomprehensible to me, has denied free transit through its territory. This
attitude, in my opinion, harms the spirit of integration and fraternity of
Central America. It also constitutes for me a very sad situation in a Central
America that I believed was more united."
For the most part, the
Cubans say they're grateful to the Costa Rican government, but they still want
to continue their journey north, according to Ivan Oliva, one of the migrants
at the San Ramon shelter.
"We would like to
thank Costa Rica for everything it has done for us, the help for children, the
elderly and pregnant women; but we don't want to stay in Costa Rica. We want to
go on toward the United States," Oliva said.
The government of
Nicaragua accused Costa Rica of generating "a serious crisis" and of
"violating treaties, borders and rights."
Costa Rica replied it's
not the cause nor the origin of this situation and that its role is simply to
protect these migrants as they travel through its territory.
By Rafael Romo, Senior
Latin American Affairs Editor, and Djenane Villanueva, CNN
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