The current migratory wave that has brought hundreds of thousands of Cubans to the border points of the United States, has broken in 12 months all the historical records of Cuban emigration for a short period.
From October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, corresponding to fiscal year 2022, the US authorities they have registered the arrival of 224,607 Cubans.
This week, the Department of Customs and Border Protection of the United States (CBP, for its acronym in English) has just added the figure corresponding to the month of September, con 26.742 Cuban records.
The new migratory wave of Cubans surpassed the estimated 155,000 immigrants predicted for this period, and also those accumulated from other large waves of Cuban immigrants to the neighboring country, that have occurred in short periods, like the exodus of 1980, when 125,000 Cubans arrived in the United States in boats that departed from the port of Mariel and the crisis of the rafters that occurred in the summer of 1994, when more than 30,000 Cubans jumped into the sea.
Other moments of great flows of Cuban immigrants to the United States occurred after 1959, after the arrival of Fidel Castro to power. By the end of 1960, approximately 40,000 Cubans had fled to the United States, and between 1965 and 1973, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled through Pan American World Airways’ so-called “Freedom Flights.”
The new stampede of Cubans has been called “the silent Mariel”, since it has been discreetly going on since a visa-free agreement between Managua and Havana It entered into force in November 2021, shortening the journey that many Cubans made by land from South and Central America to the US border.
The regime in Havana blames the United States for the mass exodus of Cubans and ensures that the migratory wave is due to factors such as non-compliance with 20 thousand annual visasthe suspension of consular services, the reduction of commercial flights between both countries and the economic embargo.
The current Administration assures that the arrival of Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan immigrants is due to the need of people to escape from the failed communist regimes in their countries.