HAVANA — Irate Cubans protested outside airline offices and at the Ecuadoran Embassy on Friday, a day after Ecuador announced new visa requirements for Cuban travelers in an attempt to cut off what has become a popular, if circuitous, migration route to the United States.
“I don’t know where I’ll go now,” said one man outside the Havana offices of Copa Airlines. He said he had spent $600 on a flight to Quito, Ecuador, for Dec. 7 but feared it would be useless now that he would need a visa. “I just want to go somewhere,” he said.
Seeing the long line outside the airline’s offices, he joined a group of other Cubans headed to the Ecuadoran Embassy.
By late afternoon, several hundred protesters remained in the streets near the embassy, chanting, “Give us our money back,” as consular officers urged the crowd to ask the airlines for reimbursements. A heavy deployment of plainclothes Cuban police and uniformed officers kept the crowds behind yellow tape, blocking access to the building.
In recent years, Ecuador has become a popular way station for Cubans heading to the United States, after President Rafael Correa implemented one of the most lenient visa policies in the world, essentially opening the country's borders to visitors from any nation.
It did not take long for Cubans to figure out that getting to the United States through Ecuador was a lot better than getting there on a raft.
Cuban migration to the United States along the Ecuador land route has been growing ever since. After a flight from Havana to Quito, some Cubans hire "coyote" smuggling guides to head north, but many, like the much larger wave of Syrian migrants headed to Europe, rely on smartphones and social media to navigate the jungles, rivers, border crossings and criminal gangs who stalk the route.
The number of Cubans using the Ecuador route has increased this year. Many migrants say they fear that improving U.S.-Cuban relations spell doom for the unique immigration privileges offering automatic U.S. residency to any Cuban who reaches American soil, regardless of whether the point of arrival is a South Florida beach or a border crossing with Mexico.
Some 45,000 Cubans are projected to reach the United States in 2015, turning this year into one of the biggest for Cuban emigration in decades.
So many Cubans have passed through Central America in recent weeks that their presence touched off a border conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Nicaragua's government, led by longtime Cuban ally Daniel Ortega, began blocking Cuban migrants from entering the country, causing a backup. Some 3,000 Cubans are stranded in Costa Rica, and a regional summit this week aimed at resolving the impasse failed to persuade Nicaragua to grant the Cubans passage.
On Thursday, Ecuador tried to stem the problem at the source by adding the visa requirement. It does not block Cubans from coming but will require them to obtain visas beforehand.Several Cubans interviewed Friday said they would try to find another route.
“I’m going to try to change my ticket to Guyana,” said a young man outside the Copa offices, who, like others, did not want to give his name because his travel plans involved semi-illegal activity. “I hear you don’t need a visa for Russia, either.”
He insisted that he was not planning to head to the United States and said he was one of the many Cubans who travel to Ecuador to buy cheap clothing and other items for sale on Cuba's black market.
The Cuban government blames the United States for the crisis, saying U.S. immigration perks create a powerful incentive for Cubans to attempt risky, illegal journeys, even as the U.S. Consulate in Havana denies visas to those wishing to travel legally. U.S. officials say the Castro government’s failed socialist system and lack of freedoms are driving Cubans to flee.
The new Cuban surge is expected to dominate the agenda Monday when U.S. and Cuban officials meet in Washington for regular talks on migration issues.