‘We can’t think about going back’

Cuban migrants trying to reach the US have been stranded by a sudden policy change – but they aren’t about to give up.

It took three months for Gabriel Marin and his wife, Yansiel, to make it from their home in eastern Cuba to a migrant shelter in Panama’s capital. The goal was the United States – but now the door that spurred their odyssey has slammed shut.

Hundreds of people like the Marins are stranded in transit in South and Central America after US President Barack Obama ended the so-called ‘‘wet foot, dry foot’’ policy that since 1995 had created a path to legal residency for thousands of Cubans who touched American soil.

The Marins are among 53 Cuban migrants at a shelter run by the Caritas charity in Panama City. Most arrived in recent weeks after following a similar route – a flight from Cuba to Guyana, followed by traversing the jungles of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, and finally a gruelling hike across the Darien Gap into Panama.

‘‘This has left us frozen, in total limbo – and sad, because it wasn’t worth risking everything, our lives,’’ Gabriel Marin, a 24-year-old cook wearing a Venezuelan football jersey, said after the news broke.

He said police in Peru near the Brazilian border had stolen US$200 from the couple, and now they were stuck.

‘‘We can just wait and see what Trump can do,’’ Marin said, holding out hope that US Presidentelect Donald Trump could reverse the change as part of a desire to dismantle the recent detente between the US and Cuba. ‘‘I have a bunch of cousins waiting for me in the United States.’’

Some of the Cubans at the shelter sat in stunned silence yesterday, while others moved anxiously from one floor to another with moist eyes.

Asked if they would return to Cuba, a small group on the patio chanted that they would not return, dead or alive. The most animated among them was 26-year-old Yancys Diaz, who left Havana in September with her mother and daughter.

‘‘In Cuba, we were harassed by the authorities. Now we can’t think about going back; someone has to help us get out of this,’’ Diaz said, smacking the shelter’s wall in frustration.

The ‘‘wet foot, dry foot’’ policy had irritated Cuba’s government for years, and its end was negotiated for several months. Cuban migrants to the US went from a special class with special privileges to just like everyone else following the dangerous migrant routes through Central America and Mexico.

Cubans can still request humanitarian relief, but they have to pass a ‘‘credible fear’’ process and present documentation proving that they face a real threat This has left us frozen, in total limbo – and sad, because it wasn’t worth risking everything, our lives. in their home country.

The outcome is far from certain, and can include lengthy stays in detention.

Failing that, they will be deported, in many cases to an island where they sold their homes and possessions to fund the trip.

An estimated 100,000 Cubans have fled the island, fearing the end of ‘‘wet foot, dry foot’’ since the announcement in December 2014 that the US and Cuba were re-establishing diplomatic relations.

But the exodus has created problems in Central America, especially when Nicaragua closed its border to Cubans in solidarity with the Havana government. That stranded Cubans in Costa Rica and Panama, forcing Central American governments to fly Cubans in their countries to the Mexico-US border.

Costa Rica last year flew more than 7000 Cubans to El Salvador and Mexico to leapfrog Nicaragua.

Government spokesman Mauricio Herrera said yesterday Costa Rica applauded Obama’s move, and no longer made special allowances for Cubans.

In 2016, 1200 Cubans were turned back at the Panamanian border, while other groups caught entering the country illegally were deported.

But Cubans are continuing to move north. In the southern Mexican border town of Tapachula, Jordan Alegria of the Mexican National Immigration Institute said that since Friday, 200 Cubans had crossed into Mexico from Guatemala.

Javier Carrillo, director of Panama’s National Immigration Service, said the flow of migrants had slowed from its peak before the announcement. He estimated that there were about 100 Cubans still in the country.

Those captured in Panama could face deportation because they entered the country illegally, although some are seeking asylum to stay.

‘‘Their dream and hope was to go to the United States, but that country closed the door. Panama does not have any responsibility,’’ Carrillo said.

Julio Hernandez, a heavy equipment operator from Cuba’s central province of Ciego de Avila, has been making the long trek with his wife, Reicy.

‘‘We feared this would happen and, sadly, we find ourselves in a country where we can’t do anything.’’