Spain busts Cuban smuggling ring

Ask the average person about Cuba and immigration and they’ll most likely visualize balseros packed onto rafts or other makeshift vessels trying to make their way to Miami. In recent years, however, Cubans have increasingly looked at other means to make their way off the island such as being smuggled by land across the U.S.-Mexico border. Oftentimes, reaching the U.S. is a harrowing ordeal as evidenced by the results of a recent Spanish investigation:

Spanish authorities have arrested 29 people suspected of forging credit cards to finance an elaborate scheme to smuggle Cubans into the U.S. from Mexico, police said Wednesday.

The organization hacked credit card data to steal more than euro400,000 ($530,000) from customers at restaurants and bars around Spain, a police statement said…

Police said the group brought Cubans to Nicaragua to work in companies serving as fronts for the smuggling gang.

In Nicaragua, the group got help from a senior official of a Spanish NGO, police said.

From that Central American country, Cubans were eventually brought to Spain with fake papers stating they had jobs waiting for them, then given forged passports to travel to Mexico. There, members of the smuggling ring would aid them in sneaking across the U.S. border, the police statement said.

It may be possible that a deeper, more significant thawing in the icy relations between Cuba and the U.S. could help stem the tide of migrants fleeing the island. In the meantime, however, many Cubans continue to take the risks of seeking a better life in the U.S.

Image- BBC News (Mexican soldier patrols one of the country ports)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AP, Reuters, washingtonpost.com