More than 5,000 Cubans have visited Nicaragua so far this year, a 900% increase over the total for all of 2018, Nicaraguan officials said Wednesday.
It lends evidence to anecdotal accounts from Cuban migrants who say they passed through Nicaragua en route to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they are requesting asylum.
Nicaragua has made it easier for Cubans to obtain visas. They need just a passport, photos and a $30 fee.
García said the visits increased after Venezuelan airline Conviasa started a Havana-Managua-Caracas route three times a week in December.
In 2017, the U.S. government ended the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which essentially had allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to stay. Rather than attempting to cross to the Florida coast on rickety boats, Cubans began moving through Central America and Mexico to the border.
Along the U.S.-Mexico border, 10,910 Cubans crossed in a six-month period, more than the 7,079 in the prior 12 months.
https://todaynicaragua.com/cuban-visits-to-nicaragua-up-900/
So Venezuela is flying thousands of Cubans to Nicaragua so they can invade the U.S. why do I have the feeling that not all these Cubans may not be freedom seekers?
A Nicaraguan-American man arrested in May last year for taking part in protests against President Daniel Ortega’s government was killed Thursday in a shooting at the La Modelo prison near Managua where he was being held.
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Photographer: Manaure Quintero/Bloomberg
Economics
Venezuela Sells $570 Million From Gold Reserve Despite Sanctions
By Patricia Laya
May 17, 2019, 12:44 PM CDT
People familiar with situation say Maduro skirting sanctions
Maduro needs gold money to fund imports, buy military loyalty
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GC1
Gold
1,275.70USD/t oz.-10.50-0.82%
Venezuela sold about $570 million in gold from central bank reserves over the past two weeks, skirting U.S. Treasury sanctions designed to freeze assets of the Nicolas Maduro’s administration, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The central bank sold about 9.7 tons of gold on May 10 and an additional 4 tons three days after, the people said, driving its reserves down to a 29-year low of $7.9 billion. The proceeds will be partly used to fund imports through the country’s foreign trade office, according to one of the people.
Venezuela’s reservers tumble to 29-year low
A central bank press official didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the sales.
Venezuela has sold 23 tons of gold since the beginning of April, defying an economic blockade meant to stop the lucrative trading Maduro has been using to keep the military loyal to his regime. Last month, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control included the Venezuelan central bank its list of sanctioned entities.
Maduro has been selling gold to firms in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, as sanctions increasingly cut off his authoritarian regime from the global financial system. While he maintains a stranglehold on power on the ground — including the military and government bureaucracy — opposition leader Juan Guaido is using support from dozens of countries to slowly seize Venezuela’s financial assets abroad.