Cuban migrants caught in limbo again as Nicaragua sends them back to Costa Rica. By Zach Dyer. + video.
16-11-2015
Cuban migrants caught in limbo again as Nicaragua sends them back to Costa Rica Zach Dyer The Tico Times November 16, 2015
The Nicaraguan Army marches at the Peñas Blancas crossing after the country temporarily closed its border on Nov. 15, 2015. (Courtesy Costa Rican Foreign Ministry)
PASO CANOAS, Puntarenas – Alain Pentón looked surprisingly calm sitting on a bench as a crowd of Cuban migrants anxiously gathered in front of Costa Rica’s immigration control center, just across the border with Panama. Pentón, a 38-year-old Cuban migrant, left the island at the end of September. After facing extortion from Colombian police on his way toward the United States, waiting for a temporary transit visa in Costa Rica was a piece of cake, he said.
Pentón and his group of seven friends and family from Havana eventually received their temporary Costa Rica visas and boarded the first bus out of Paso Canoas. The crowd cheered and the Cubans on board waved to their compatriots as the neon green Tracopa bus pulled onto the Inter-American Highway, headed north. But their troubles weren’t over yet: Nicaragua closed its border to the Cubans on Sunday and riot police fired shots and tear gas after 700 Cuban migrants reportedly tried to cross into the country.
“We were completely peaceful, asking them [Nicaraguan authorities] to let us pass or at least give us an answer,” said an unidentified man on an audio recording released by Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday. “They just used force without warning on the Cubans trying to escape the prison there [Cuba]. We just want to follow our dream, that’s what we’re looking for,” said the man.
He claimed that a young child was injured in the incident along with at least two other women. The Foreign Ministry said it could not independently confirm the details of that account.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel González said Nicaragua’s decision to close the border was “totally irresponsible,” and he refuted a letter of condemnation from the Nicaraguan government accusing Costa Rica of goading the Cubans to cross en masse.
A news release from the Nicaraguan military stated: “For a week Costa Rican authorities have promoted the entry into national territory of illegal people at blind spots [along the border], at a pace that’s increased in recent days, promoting the forced entry of Cuban citizens, who have been detained, turned over to the corresponding authorities, and returned to Costa Rica.”
CDV.org: Video published on You Tube by 72Pantalla2 on November 16, 2015: