International
‘You lose hope’: Cuban exodus to US largest in island’s history
| By AFP | Gerard Martinez with Rigoberto Diaz in Havana |
Exhausted by “surviving instead of living” in Cuba, David Gonzalez set his sights on a new life in the United States.
In early 2022, he joined thousands of Cubans whose migration has amounted to the largest exodus in the Caribbean nation’s history.
Gonzalez, a 34-year-old barber, said he could no longer bear the hardships of a country going through its worst economic crisis since the 1990s, or the communist regime he had never embraced.
In Cuba, “you lose hope,” he told AFP from Miami, Florida, which he reached after a weeks-long odyssey across multiple countries.
That hopelessness, shared by many young people in Cuba, has pushed emigration to the United States to the highest levels on record.
In the year from December 2021 to 2022, border authorities recorded more than 227,000 instances of Cubans illegally entering US territory.
That figure exceeds those of two previous mass departures: the Mariel boatlift, when 125,000 Cubans left for the United States in 1980, and the 1994 departure of 34,000 people to US shores within a month, said Jorge Duany, a Cuba expert at Florida International University.
‘My biggest fear’
Gonzalez’s journey started with a flight to Nicaragua.
The government of the Central American country, an ally of the Havana regime, removed visa requirements for Cubans in November 2021, making Managua the first stop on the road to the United States for most migrants from the island.
The journey cost Gonzalez some $7,000: $3,500 for the airfare and another $3,500 for smugglers to take him overland from Nicaragua to the United States — a huge sum for the average Cuban salary of 3,768 pesos a month, about $157.
Gonzalez scrounged half the money by selling his motorcycle and other belongings. A friend sent him the rest from Miami.
From his 30-day trip through Central America and Mexico, he remembers above all the long rides with dozens of people crammed on a bus or in the back of a truck.
But it wasn’t the prospect of thirst, lack of air, unbearable heat during the day and biting cold at night that scared him the most on the journey.
“My biggest fear was that I would be deported to Cuba,” he said.
Danger at sea
Others choose a different route to the United States no less rife with danger, risking their lives to travel the 90 miles (145 kilometers) of water that separates Cuba and Florida often in makeshift vessels.
On Christmas Day, 15 people were picked up in the Florida Keys, where dozens of Cubans arrive every week.
Mariana de la Caridad Fernandez made the journey in November.
The 20-year-old and her sister Yaneris, 31, had been sentenced in Cuba to four years of house arrest and seven years in prison respectively for participating in demonstrations that shook the country in July 2021.
Having been on the run in Cuba for a month, they decided to make for Miami, where their mother lives.
The sea was calm during the 16-hour crossing with their dog, Toby, and 40 others packed into the boat.
“We panicked a bit when we arrived in the early hours of the morning and had to get off the boat and swim to get to land,” Fernandez said.
A border patrol immediately detained the sisters, but released them on parole, giving them temporary leave to stay in the country.
Aiming to apply for political asylum, they hope to legalize their status under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans to apply for residency a year and a day from when they entered the United States.
‘See a future’
Others haven’t been so lucky.
Many who are picked up in boats by the US Coast Guard are quickly sent back to Cuba, unless they prove their lives are in danger.
Since October 1, the Coast Guard has detained over 3,700 Cubans, more than half the number taken into custody between October 2021 and the same month in 2022.
Then there are the untold numbers of Cubans who die at sea.
In April, a boat carrying 14 men capsized three days after departing Cuba. Only five managed to swim back to the island.
The nephew of Miriela, a Cuban woman who preferred not to give her last name, was one of those who disappeared in the wreck.
“It pains us not knowing what happened to him,” she said.
For Gonzalez, the risks he took to reach Miami were worth it.
Now also on parole, he hopes to avoid deportation until he can try for residency via the Cuban Adjustment Act.
“In eight months I already have what I didn’t have in Cuba,” he said.
“It’s not just the material comforts, but that you can see a future.”
International
Man arrested after deliberately driving into seven children in Osaka
Japanese police arrested a man on Thursday after he rammed his car into a group of seven schoolchildren in an apparent deliberate attack in the city of Osaka.
The children, who were on their way home from school, sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital. All seven remained conscious, according to local authorities.
An Osaka police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect is a 28-year-old man from Tokyo. The officer shared statements the man made after his arrest: “I was fed up with everything, so I decided to kill people by driving into several elementary school children,” the suspect reportedly said.
The man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The injured children, aged between seven and eight, included a seven-year-old girl who suffered a fractured jaw. The six other children—all boys—suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scratches and were undergoing medical evaluation.
Witnesses described the car as “zigzagging” before hitting the children. One witness told Nippon TV that a girl was “covered in blood” and the others appeared to have scratches.
Another witness said the driver, who was wearing a face mask, looked to be in shock when school staff pulled him from the vehicle.
Violent crimes are rare in Japan, though serious incidents do occur from time to time. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato drove a two-ton truck into pedestrians in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, then fatally stabbed several victims. Seven people were killed in that attack.
Internacionales
Clashes erupt during may day protests across France amid calls for better wages
May Day protests in France were marked by a heavy police presence and clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement in several cities.
In Paris, Lyon, and Nantes, thousands took to the streets to demand better wages, fairer working conditions, and to voice their dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
While the majority of the demonstrations remained peaceful, isolated confrontations broke out in some areas. Protesters threw objects at the police, prompting the use of tear gas and resulting in several arrests.
Videos showing police crackdowns circulated widely on social media, drawing criticism from labor unions and human rights advocates, who denounced the authorities’ response to the protests.
International
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deported “more than half a million” migrants due to pressure from former President Donald Trump.
During a cabinet meeting highlighting the “achievements” of Trump’s administration in its first 100 days, Noem asserted that under the Republican leader’s influence, “Mexico has finally come to the table” to negotiate on migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“The president of Mexico told me she has returned just over half a million people before they reached our border,” Noem stated, criticizing media reports that suggest the Biden administration deported more migrants than Trump’s.
“I wish those deportations were counted,” Noem added, “because those people never made it to our border—she sent them back because you made her.” She went on to thank Trump: “They never made it here because they got the message—because you were so aggressive.”
Noem has made controversial claims about Sheinbaum in the past, prompting the Mexican leader to refute them.
On April 1, Sheinbaum responded to one such statement by declaring, “The president answers to only one authority, and that is the people of Mexico,” after Noem said on Fox News that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things Trump would like to see” and that Mexico’s actions would determine whether Trump granted tariff relief.
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