For Cubans, Ecuador is the new Florida

For Cubans, Ecuador is the new Florida

Ecuador's lack of visa requirements has attracted Cubans who see it as a
several-year stopover en route to the United States. A neighborhood in
Quito, the capital, is endearingly called the new Florida.
By Irene Caselli, Correspondent / June 4, 2010
Quito, Ecuador

The neighborhood near Quito's airport is called Florida – and the irony
is lost on no one. Cubans here joke that they were fooled into thinking
they were in the United States.

But in a sense, Ecuador has become the new Florida for many Cubans.
Since mid-2008, no foreigner has needed a visa to enter this country.
Cubans have responded enthusiastically, driven by business dreams, hopes
for prosperity, and perhaps a goal of eventually moving to the US.

According to the National Directorate of Migration, 4,783 Cubans entered
the country in 2007, a number that grew to 10,948 in 2008 and 27,114 in
2009. Of those Cubans who entered the country in 2009 on tourist visas,
some 4,000 stayed on. Most managed to become naturalized and receive an
Ecuadorean passport through arranged marriages.
Marrying for citizenship

José Ernesto Zamora, a restaurant owner, arrived in Quito a year and a
half ago after trying his luck in Russia and Venezuela. He divorced his
wife in Cuba so that he could marry again here. "I left to try and
improve my economic conditions," he says.

Mr. Zamora's paperwork came at minimal fuss and cost. But with marriage
the quickest route to citizenship, a thriving business in illegal papers
and arranged unions has emerged. In response, government officials in
March established that foreigners who have entered on a tourist visa may
not marry here without obtaining a different kind of visa.

"People get together on the Internet, but up to a certain point," says
Eduardo Barrera, who heads the Advisory Council for Migration Policy.
Steppingstone to the US

For many observers, the question is why Cubans are choosing Ecuador, a
country with high unemployment and poverty rates.

Some say that Ecuador has become the new steppingstone to the United
States – a claim for which there is only anecdotal evidence from Cubans,
as official data are lacking. Many use their new Ecuadorean citizenship
to set up business with Cuba. They go back and forth with merchandise –
most often clothes or shoes they resell on the black market at higher
prices.

Others have come here hoping to get better salaries, but are
disappointed when told they are qualified for their jobs, but couldn't
be hired because they were not Ecuadorean.

Most, however, seem to agree that had they not been desperate to leave
Cuba, they would never be here.

Zamora is not planning to stay forever. He knows what his next
destination is: Florida, the American one, as soon as he can get
citizenship, divorce his Ecuadorean wife, and reunite with his Cuban one.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0604/For-Cubans-Ecuador-is-the-new-Florida