The Culprit Has The Solution

The Culprit Has The Solution / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez
Posted on November 21, 2015

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 21 November 2015 – "Anyone who has
$15,000 to give a human trafficker is not fleeing poverty," were the
words of Oliver Zamaro, an official spokesperson on Cuban television who
was commenting this Friday on the situation of the more than 2,000
Cubans stranded at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

After days of silence on the situation, the partisan media wants to use
the drama of these compatriots as a weapon against the White House. An
overused strategy that barely has any effect at this point. Now, they
want to convince us that the massive exits are not the responsibility of
the country being left behind, but rather of the other one those leaving
are trying to reach.

Suffice it to mention the thousands of Cubans who escape to other
nations where there is no "wet foot, dry foot" law, to realize that the
responsibility for the exodus that we have been experiencing for more
than half a century rests on a system that has not been able to offer
its citizens material prosperity, personal fulfillment or freedom… Much
less a future.

Why, if they can get $15,000, do they prefer to invest it in a dangerous
escape with no certainty of getting to the other side, instead of
creating a business or prospering in their own country? The answer is
painful and compelling: because there are no guarantees, no hope

Mr. Zamora apparently ignores that the amount of money mentioned,
equivalent to more than 60 years of the salary of a professional earning
500 Cuban pesos a month, comes from a desperate action, or from help
sent from abroad. The majority of those who are currently in Central
American shelters have sold all their belongings to undertake such a
dangerous route, or depended on relatives who have emigrated to finance
the payment to the human traffickers.

The question would be why, if they can get $15,000, do they prefer to
invest it in a dangerous escape with no certainty of getting to the
other side, instead of creating a business or prospering in their own
country. The answer is painful and compelling: because there are no
guarantees, no hope and because the timeframe of their lives cannot wait
for the promises of improvements on the horizon: promises that every
time we come close to touching them become more distant.

The problem unleashed is growing, because Nicaragua's closing of the
border to Cubans is not deterring those left on the island from trying
to leave. The flights to Ecuador continue to carry Cubans who, instead
of feeling discouraged by the increasing difficulties, believe that the
visibility of their cause might protect them and create pressure for a
corridor that guarantees passage to the north.

It seems to be a repeat of the effect that moved 10,000 people to occupy
the Peruvian embassy in Havana in 1980, and shortly after led more than
100,000 to leave from the Port of Mariel, the same migratory fever that
led 35,000 Cubans to figure in the Rafter Crisis in 1994. A nation in
flight, one whose children cyclically find a route to leave behind the
land where they were born.

It is noteworthy that this situation is happening when Raul Castro's
reforms seem to have peaked and proved their ineffectiveness in bringing
about results that can be seen in daily life

It is noteworthy that this situation is happening when Raul Castro's
reforms seem to have peaked and proved their ineffectiveness in bringing
about results that can be seen in daily life. Not even the
reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States has
managed to appease the widespread disappointment and despair among
Cuba's youngest.

The undeclared but latent threat, that the Cuban Adjustment Act will be
repealed, has only hastened each individual's decision to abandon their
country, but this is neither the trigger nor the cause for deciding
to risk one's own life and those of small children on a journey filled
with danger.

A brief statement by Raul Castro in front of the cameras on national
television, where he would say what millions of Cubans have waited
decades to hear, would be enough to stop the flow of migrants and even
to start to reverse it. Not offering this final speech, of the autocracy
that will give way to another government, makes him guilty of everything
that is happening.

Source: The Culprit Has The Solution / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-culprit-has-the-solution-14ymedio-yoani-sanchez/