Cubans in Ecuador ask for airlift directly from Quito to U.S. border

Facing a new rush of undocumented migrants from Cuba — with hundreds already in Costa Rica or Panama — the Costa Rican government has called an urgent meeting Tuesday with officials from the United States, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia and Ecuador to search for a regional answer to a new chapter of the emerging migration crisis. Mario Mateo [email protected]

By Abel Fernández

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Although she does not know exactly when she will leave for Panama — where about 3,500 undocumented Cubans are stranded because neighboring Costa Rica closed its borders to them — the 35-year-old Acanda, a college graduate in social studies from Sancti Spíritus, knows her departure is imminent.

Ecuador is suffering through an economic crisis, she says, and Cubans are feeling the rejection by Ecuadorans who complain that migrants are taking their jobs.

“The economic crisis has generated xenophobia against the Cubans,” Acanda said, adding that she has been unemployed for nearly one year.

Although she was not thinking of migrating to the United States when she first arrived in Ecuador, she said her savings are dwindling and she’s desperate. But the trek to the United States is expensive for those without required visas, and she’s afraid of the Colombia leg of the journey, which includes a walk through parts of the Darién Gap, a swath of undeveloped swampland and forest dominated by FARC guerrillas.