Mexico flights offered to US-bound Cubans in C.America
Thousands of US-bound Cubans stranded in Costa Rica and Panama will be able to take direct flights to Mexico, if they can afford the cost, the governments of the Central American countries said Friday. The flights are aimed at accelerating a transfer of more than 9,000 Cuban migrants through Central America to Mexico past Nicaragua, a Cuban ally which closed its border to them in November. Most of the Cubans are in Costa Rica, which last month began flying them out to El Salvador, where they were put on buses that carried them across Guatemala to the Mexican border. From there they were to make their own way to the border with the United States, which has a longstanding policy dating back to the Cold War of accepting Cubans fleeing their Communist-ruled island. The new direct flights from Costa Rica to northern Mexico cost $790 per adult and can carry 118 passengers each time, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told reporters. The other flights to El Salvador and then the bus trip cost $555 and will continue. The migrants have to bear the cost of the trips themselves. Costa Rica predicts all will have been flown out within five weeks. Panama announced it had struck a similar deal with Mexico for direct flights for the 1,300 Cubans on its territory wanting to head to the US, but gave no details of the ticket prices. Mexico's government said it would give the arriving Cubans a humanitarian entry visa valid for 20 days to give them time to make it to the United States.
