“The protest was dissolved in a peaceful way in quotes: there was no aggression or use of force, but there was a total refusal to remain there.” Eliécer, 34, is one of the Cubans who demonstrated this Monday in front of the Costa Rican consulate in Havana after the announcement by this nation of require a transit visa travelers en route to a third country. “There were little horses, policemen, guards, repressive forces,” she describes, just as found this newspaper.
Eliécer worked as a tour guide until, in 2017, he had a run-in with a police officer. Since then, his life became a constant pressure. “The networks began to control me, to quote me, to visit me, they prohibited me from doing my job,” he tells 14ymedio. “Given my refusal to accept any blackmail, my life and that of my family became in constant uncertainty and I made the decision to leave.”
The way would be, of course, Nicaragua, which last November decreed the “visa free” for Cubans. To do this, Eliécer sold all his belongings, including his motorcycle, his split, his automatic washing machine and, the most painful for him, a collection of shirts, which he treasured like precious stones. “It may sound laughable, but to me it’s not,” he apologizes.
“The people who had withdrawn their money to change dollars were in a limbo,” he explains, “because they had no way to prove economic solvency.”
The young man bought his ticket on January 29, through a manager, by Copa Airlines and Avianca, whose journey lasted a total of 32 hours and made three stops between Havana and Managua: Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. He paid $3,600 for it.
Although Costa Rica announced the transit visa requirement last Thursday, Eliécer found out over the weekend, “inoperative days in terms of paperwork.” The young man regrets that to request this immigration document, the Costa Rican authorities “ask for a number of ridiculous requirements, because we are not even going to enter national territory.” For example, a bank account statement, which he was only able to obtain this Monday, and a criminal record certificate, which they learned upon arrival at the diplomatic headquarters that it was useless if it was not legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The people who had withdrawn their money to change dollars were in a limbo,” he explains, “because they had no way to prove economic solvency.”
All this caused discomfort in the crowd gathered on Fifth Avenue, between 66 and 68, in Miramar. The situation made the consul go out to calm things down, says Eliécer. “He gave a rather vague and justifying answer that it was not the responsibility of the consulate or even the Government of Costa Rica, but of Migration,” he details, and protests: “Obviously they are arguing about responsibility. The congregants only demanded “that everyone who obtained the ticket before this regulation would allow us to fly with a special permit, or simply arrange the visa for us as soon as possible”, but their requests were ignored: “They replied that it was impossible, because they had to process that as a formality consulate that has its time parameters”.
“There were older people, children, people from various municipalities, people who were very upset and others who were upset because it was all a robbery”
Once the crowd had dispersed and a whole surveillance deployment was launched around the embassy, no official came out again, despite the fact that they have opening hours for the public in the afternoon. “The Sepsa guards, the consulate security guards, attended to us and they simply told us that the person who was supposed to face us would not come out, that we should come back the next day.” In addition, they warned them: “In order for them to prepare, I tell them that if they want, cancel those flights, because they won’t have time.”
They also stopped answering the phone. “They have a number available to serve the population, but it wasn’t working,” says the young man. “I made 37 consecutive calls to see if it was a busy issue, but no, I never got through. Other people also tried and couldn’t; the phone was busy all the time.”
In the case of Eliécer, this cancellation is complicated by the attitude of the airlines. Copa, he says, should return the amount of the route it covered (Havana-Panama-Costa Rica) with a penalty of 200 dollars, but Avianca, which covered Costa Rica-El Salvador-Managua, would not refund anything. “Avianca brazenly steals our money and doesn’t even show its face,” he denounces. “When you cancel, you lose all the money.”
Still, his situation was not the worst, he says. “There was a car at the protest with people from Sancti Spíritus who had left their house at four in the morning to get here early. Those people, of course, had to return to their province without a solution,” he narrates. “There were older people, children, people from various municipalities, people who were very upset and others who were upset because it was all a robbery.”
The claim, he insists, is very simple: “That they let us fly, because there are many people who have sold their houses, their lives, in order to escape from this disaster in the country and basically there are many who right now are without a thing and without the other”.
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