According to a report released by the Dominican paper La Prensa on Wednesday, an approaching Caracas-Managua flight path operated by the Colombian state-owned Conviasa airline may increase the flow of immigrants trying to enter the United States.
In recent years, Nicaragua’s socialist leader Daniel Ortega has allowed foreigners traveling to the United States easily through the country. According to experts, Ortega is attempting to negotiate potential sanctions relief with the United States using movement as a “golden opportunity” negotiations application.
Nicaragua offers an alternative way for refugees seeking U.S. territory because it prevents them from traversing the dangerous Darien Gap jungle trail between Colombia and Panama.
Despite the high costs incurred by such a long flight in the case of African and Indian refugees, migrants from Haiti, India, and other African nations like Senegal have even begun to fly to Nicaragua and go through the land before entering the United States. Most nations do n’t require entry visas for Nicaragua. Researchers have also denounced that the Ortega government charges$ 200 per migratory to use the government’s airports.
According to commercial materials published by the airline on social media, Conviasa’s innovative Venezuela- Nicaragua flights may begin operating on May 5. The journey way, according to La Prensa, may have a layover in Havana, Cuba. After the Ortega government removed the needs for Cuban nationals to obtain entry visas, Cubans have started using Nicaragua since 2022. President Obama ended laws that made it illegal for Cubans to enter the country through the southwestern border.
# SabíasQue | |# Managua es sede de importantes sitios históricos, como la Plaza de la Revolución, el Palacio de la Cultura y el Museo Nacional.
¡Conócela! Adquiere tu boleto en https ://t.co/M3KXiUtSuC photograph. twitter.com/bEPS3rluFG
— Línea Aérea Conviasa ( @LAConviasa ) April 29, 2024
Currently, Conviasa offers planes from Havana to Managua on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The new path will effectively provide daily flights from the Cuban state-owned airline to Nicaragua, opening a probable route for Venezuelan migrants who want to leave the communist regime and travel north without crossing the Darien Gap. The worst immigrant crisis in the Western Hemisphere is now rivaled only by the Syrian and Russian migrant crises now, thanks to Venezuela’s communist policies.
Venezuela has had its primary airlines to and from the United States halted since 2019.
The fresh Caracas- Managua trip connection is being established, according to La Prensa, at a time when the United States is attempting to ban the use of foreign carriers to transport people from Nicaragua.
The work, according to official information reviewed by the news, seem to have had much success.
In January, statistics from the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN) showed that Managua’s international airports continued to , “break information” in the number of” visitors” arriving to the region despite no reported regional information that may indicate an actual boost in tourist activity in the country.
BCN’s statistics show that, between September and October 2023 alone, 241, 700 people arrived at the airport, yet only 94, 500 left Nicaragua by air, which would suggest that some 147, 200 left the country by land.
Between January and February 2024, La Prensa reported, based on BCN statistics, some 130, 000 passengers arrived by air, 119, 300 of whom left on outbound flights, leaving a difference of about 11, 000 migrants who may have opted to continue towards the United States by land.
La Prensa explained that the 11, 000-person difference is comparable to the one that was recorded in 2023, when approximately 10, 900 passengers did not take Nicaragua by air.
Ecuadorian migrants fleeing their crime- and gang-ridden country and starting using Nicaragua to enter the United States, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper. According to statistical information from the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism ( INTUR), 44, 221 Ecuadorian citizens passed through the Managua International Airport in 2022, up from 2, 215 in 2017, which represents a 1, 900 percent increase.
Beginning in October 2023, El Salvador, one of the nations that Indian and African migrants use as a stopgap bridge between Nicaragua and the United States, started levying a$ 1, 000 tariff on travelers there in an effort to stop the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States.
Local authorities made the decision to impose the tariff after they noticed an increase in the number of inbound, outbound, and connecting Indian and African passengers at the airport in comparison to previous years.
Former President Donald Trump’s administration  , sanctioned , the Venezuelan state- owned Conviasa airline in 2020 because of the regime’s continued use of the airline to” shuttle corrupt regime officials around the world to fuel support for its anti- democratic efforts”.
The administration of U. S. President Joe Biden , partially lifted , the sanctions in November as part of a flimsy agreement with the Maduro regime for the deportation of Venezuelan migrants. The Maduro government reportedly refused to repatriate migrants since breaking the deportation deal in February.
Christian K. Caruzo is a writer from Venezuela who writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
