‘Cuba Is Depopulating’: Largest Exodus Yet Threatens Country’s Future
The pandemic and tougher U.S. sanctions have decimated Cuba’s economy, prompting the biggest migration since Fidel Castro rose to power.
BARACOA, Cuba — Roger García Ordaz makes no secret of his many attempts to flee.
He has tried to leave Cuba 11 times (!) on boats made of wood, Styrofoam and resin, and has a tattoo for each failed attempt, including three boat mishaps and eight times picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent home.
“Of course I am going to keep on throwing myself into the sea until I get there. Or if the sea wants to take my life, so be it.”--Roger García Ordaz, Baracoa, Cuba.
Real intellectual, Roger the dodger. Deep thinker. RISK YOUR LIFE FOR THE SEA RATHER THAN YOUR OWN COUNTRY! You are DISGRACEFUL.
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Over the last year, nearly 250,000 Cubans, more than 2 percent of the island’s 11 million population, have migrated to the United States, most of them arriving at the southern border by land, according to U.S. government data.
Even for a nation known for mass exodus, the current wave is remarkable — larger than the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis combined, until recently the island’s two biggest migration events.
