Cubans protest loss of visas

Angry crowds lined up outside the Ecuadoran Embassy and airline offices after news visa rules would be stricter.

HAVANA — Irate Cubans protested outside airline offices and at the Ecuadoran Embassy on Friday, a day after Ecuador announced new visa requirements for Cuban travelers in an attempt to cut off what has become a popular, if circuitous, migration route to the United States.

Spontaneous public protests are rare in Cuba, and police moved quickly to close the streets around the Ecuadoran Embassy when a crowd of hundreds gathered, demanding visas. Elsewhere in Havana, Cubans formed long lines at airline offices, seeking refunds for flights booked to Ecuador or a seat on one of the last few flights before Tuesday, when the new visa requirement will take effect.

“I don’t know where I’ll go now,” said one man outside the Havana offices of Copa Airlines. He said he had spent $600 on a flight to Quito, Ecuador, for Dec. 7 but feared it would be useless now that he would need a visa. “I just want to go somewhere,” he said.

Seeing the long line outside the airline’s offices, he joined a group of other Cubans headed to the Ecuadoran Embassy.

By late afternoon, several hundred protesters remained in the streets near the embassy, chanting, “Give us our money back,” as consular officers urged the crowd to ask the airlines for reimbursements. A heavy deployment of plainclothes Cuban police and uniformed officers kept the crowds behind yellow tape, blocking access to the building.

In recent years, Ecuador has become a popular way station for Cubans heading to the United States, after President Rafael Correa implemented one of the most lenient visa policies in the world, essentially opening the country’s borders to visitors from any nation.

It did not take long for Cubans to figure out that getting to the United States through Ecuador was a lot better than getting there on a raft.

Cuban migration to the United States along the Ecuador land route has been growing ever since. After a flight from Havana to Quito, some Cubans hire “coyote” smuggling guides to head north, but many, like the much larger wave of Syrian migrants headed to Europe, rely on smartphones and social media to navigate the jungles, rivers, border crossings and criminal gangs who stalk the route.

The number of Cubans using the Ecuador route has increased this year. Many migrants say they fear that improving U.S.-Cuban relations spell doom for the unique immigration privileges offering automatic U.S. residency to any Cuban who reaches American soil, regardless of whether the point of arrival is a South Florida beach or a border crossing with Mexico.

Some 45,000 Cubans are projected to reach the United States in 2015, turning this year into one of the biggest for Cuban emigration in decades.

So many Cubans have passed through Central America in recent weeks that their presence touched off a border conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The new Cuban surge is expected to dominate the agenda Monday when U.S. and Cuban officials meet in Washington for regular talks on migration issues.