Cubans who need to travel to Guyana to meet at the United States Embassy to obtain visas are denouncing that plane tickets to travel from Cuba to Georgetown are quoting in the informal market between $ 4,700 and $ 7,000, almost five months after Cuba suspendeddirect flights to that country to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Since 2018, Cubans who need consular procedures to travel to the United States must travel to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, where the US embassy is located, after Washington suspended interviews and other services in the Havana embassyAttacks against your diplomats.

Last December, Cuba drastically reduced flights from the US and five other countries as a measure to stop Covid-19 infections.Shortly after, he suspended direct flights to Guyana, in the northeast of the South American continent, which is one of the few countries in the world that does not demand visa to Cubans.

Since then, what consisted of a 4 -hour flight from Havana to Georgetown has become a transatlantic odyssey for Cubans with appointments in the United States embassy, which now have to cross at least four countries, includingSome as far away as Russia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, until you reach Guyana.

Cubans have turned to social networks to search for information, passages, lodging and advice from others who have made the journey or have achieved the expected visa.Among the claims and complaints in Facebook and WhatsApp groups reviewed by the new Herald, Cubans are scandalized by the prohibitive prices of passages to Guyana.A person recently denounced on Facebook that a passage to Guyana from Havana was quoting at $ 7,000, which raised a wave of protests on the networks.

A Facebook user under the name of Carolina Rodríguez Pérez recommended people to pay those prices."They are killing us, everyone does not have that money, the more they pay, the more they keep up," he wrote in the comments.

Until Cuba suspended the flights, from the island the Cup airlines, Caribbean and Aruba Airlines flew to Guyana.The connections with Cuba began to gradually decrease from March 2020, until in January 2021, the Caribbean Airlines airline, which operated the Havana-Georgetown route, announced on the social networks that Cuba had suspended flights between the two countries between the two countriesFor the epidemiological situation.

A journey for 4 or 5 countries

Jorge Hernández, a Cuban who has pending procedures to travel to the United States, said that there are no direct flights to Guyana, the only way to reach the US embassy is through a flight with connection by other countries.

“There are people in Guyana who have alleged agencies to be able to make a flight itinerary.For example, I recently proposed to fly from Varadero to Russia, after Russia to Turkey, from Turkey to Panama and Panama then flew to Guyana, ”he told El Nuevo Herald.

Russia is another of the few countries in the world that do not demand visa from Cubans.

Family members pay the tickets, he said.“Those travel agencies do not operate here in Cuba, so we have no way to make payments with them, not to be having families abroad.That is why these people make such a passage sales efforts, ”he added.

According to Hernández, Cubans feel desperate about this situation.Guyana is the only way to carry out consular procedures and obtain visa to the United States after the closure of the embassy on the island.

“The value of a passage to Guyana for connections in other countries can range between $ 5,700 and $ 6,500, equivalent to more than 375,000 Cuban pesos (to informal change).Also, when leaving the Cuba airport, [the Cuban authorities] ask you for an interview confirmation at the American Embassy in Guyana.That is, only Cubans who have procedures to perform can travel, ”he added.

Some Cubans also traveled to Guyana before the suspension of flights to buy goods and resell them in Cuba.

A Cuban who asked not to give his name for fear of reprisals from the island's governmentAirlines with an Havana-Panama-Georgetown itinerary for $ 4,700.

The woman could not pay the ticket at that price and has had to postpone her interview at the American Embassy of Guyana.Get an appointment takes many months, he said."There are many who have had to reschedule their appointment, and this makes family reunification more," he said.

“The other options to fly [to Guyana] are through Russia, Turkey, with technical scale in Colombia, Panama, and finally Guyana.That trip takes three days, ”he said.“Others have made a similar itinerary, but instead of going to Turkey they have had to go to Dubai, which is a four -day trip.In the case of families who have children, they prefer not to risk and decide to take the flights of Havana-Panama-Guyana, ”even more expensive, he added.

Oscander Rodríguez, a Cuban fileMake a five -day journey from Cuba making a scale in Russia, Dubai and Panama.

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“During the last quarter of the previous year, Caribbean Airlines began to cover the Havana-Georgetown route.In our opinion, it was the best option, even in pandemic times, because the plane left Havana, towards a technical stop in Trinidad and Tobago, and then arrived here;And on the return, the flight was direct from Georgetown-Habana, ”he said."But just before December 31, 2020, Caribbean Airlines flights were suspended.".

Jean Barrero, a Cuban based in Miami, a month ago had the joy of meeting his son, who lived in Cuba.

"I claimed my son in 2019 and in February 2021 they gave him the first appointment at the American Embassy of Guyana, which was canceled by the pandemic and I had to reschedule the interview for May 17," he said.

Due to the low flight availability, Barrero had to look for options for his son to reach the appointment at the Embassy, and achieved a humanitarian passage from the Mexican airline Viva Aerobus.The flight was canceled for missing an authorization from the Government of Cuba.

Barrero kept looking and was able to get a passage from the Copa airline through the Tocororo Travel agency for $ 820, with an itinerary of Havana-Panama-Guyana.

He said feeling lucky: “Unlike many who have had to pay high prices to travel and have even lost their shifts in the embassy, I managed to get passage for my son for early May.What he had to do was wait for his turn ".

Barrero said that high passage prices are due to Cuba has restricted the number of airline flight flights.

He also commented that there are people in Guyana who are in the travel business that buy the few available tickets and then resell them.The demand for tickets has increased since the embassy resumed the interviews for visas, he said.

“The good part is that the Embassy in Guyana is quite flexible in the cases of the people who lose the interview, since they are aware of the bad situation that Cubans are suffering.Then they give the possibility of rescheduing the appointments to those who lose it or do not find passages ”.

Cubans stranded in Guyana

Rodríguez, from the Agency Toma 1, added that many Cubans have been stranded in Guyana since December last year without passages to return to the island.They were mostly people who were traveling to Guyana taking advantage of the fact that they did not need a visa to buy goods and resell them in Cuba.

At the beginning of the year, humanitarian flight tickets of the Mexican airline Viva Aerobus for the stranded Cubans were sold, but the flights were never materialized.Although the tickets said they were not reimbursable, S.W.V Travel, one of the agencies that sold them, had to return the money because the Cuban authorities did not give their approval, according to Tania Vásquez Rodríguez, one of the retail agents who sold several of these passages.

Cubans stranded in Guyana demand that the Government of the island find a solution that allows them to return to their home.Many have requested support from the Cuban Embassy in Georgetown, but the island authorities blame the airline for the flight coordination problem, said one of the Cubans affected to the Cibercuba news portal.

"This is an absolute ball.It is a lack of respect.We have politely requested that they find a solution, that they approve a humanitarian flight, that readjus the hours of the Cup flights to Havana, but nobody responds anything and the weeks are happening.There are older people, people with children in Cuba, and they are running out of resources to survive, ”he told Cibercuba.

"I took a passage before the pandemic began by Caribbean Airlines and they canceled it days before the date, I took it again when the flights were resumed several months later and, days before the flight, they canceled it again," said LeonelCrespo Head, another Cuban stranded in Guyana.

Crespo feels desperate.He has already been out of Cuba for almost two years and has put himself to work in order to survive in Guyana.He comments that return ticket prices range from $ 500 with a cup and $ 650 with Caribbean Airlines.

"I have no more money and I don't know the longer I will have to wait for Cuba to allow the entry of my airline's flights," he added.

Florida's congresswoman for District 27, María Elvira Salazar, expressed her total repudiation of detachment and the little commitment that the Havana regime has had to solve the situation, which she described as "disaster".

"This is one more demonstration of how the regime shouhaly profit from the pain of the people of Cuba," he said.“Since I arrived at Congress I have been fighting to expedite the family reunification process.In fact, together with the congressman Mario Diaz-Balart we have presented a bill so that Cubans on the island can process their visas in the Naval Base of Guantanamo, ”he added.

Shortly after presented the bill, the Government of Cuba ruled out that possibility, saying that US legislators "use a sensitive issue for the thousands of affected Cuban families to provoke and unauthorize the authorities of our country".

More than 100,000 Cuban claims are pending since visa services are suspended at the United States Embassy in Havana.

This story was originally posted on June 22, 2021 10:33 am.