Madrid Spain.- Cubadebate TV opened this Monday audiovisual series “Why migrate Cubans?” where, according to the official media, topics such as: What are the main motivations that drive Cubans to emigrate? And what effects does the migratory phenomenon bring?
In the first installment of the program, in which José Ramón Cabañas, director of the Center for International Policy Research, took part, the United States government was blamed for the current migration crisis.
According to Cabañas, the figures for Cuban migrants “fit perfectly with the visas that have not been issued in Havana”; He insisted on the reduction of the US consular presence on the island and the limitation of Cuba-United States flights as some of the causes for this migratory increase.
The former director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad recognized the search for economic improvements among the reasons why Cubans leave the island, but considered that the effects of the pandemic and the US embargo have led to the precarious economic situation that Cubans are going through. the country, and not government mismanagement.
On the other hand, Cabañas denied that many Cubans emigrate for political reasons, but that “Cuban emigration is circular and very few leave to break definitive ties with Cuba.”
“Even those who at the time of leaving consider that their main reason is that they do not share the Cuban political model, when they arrive at their destination they lead the life of an economic emigrant and do not mix with any plan of aggression against Cuba, they do not militate in any political party. nor do they draft a political platform to build another type of society in Cuba,” he said in this regard.
When comparing the emigration of the 1990s with the current one, the minister considered that the majority of Cubans emigrate legally, leaving with a passport to another destination.
With these considerations, José Ramón Cabañas, who only surreptitiously mentioned the illegal departures by sea, minimized the massive exodus of Cuban rafters to the United States.
So far this fiscal year (October 2021 through September 2022), the United States Coast Guard has repatriated more than 5,000 Cubans; a figure that constitutes a record in emigration to the northern country; surpassing the Mariel crisisin 1980, and that of the rafters in 1994.
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