QUITO, Ecuador — It’s a bright morning in late May, and several hundred Cubans are gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Quito. Peter Borges, the organizer of the meeting and the co-founder of the group Cubanos Destino USA, stands at the front of the crowd, delivering a speech over the din of nearby traffic.
“We’re thankful to Ecuador, which was one of the only countries to open its doors to us, but we know that our time here is up,” he says. The group cheers, and minutes later chants a response meant to carry over the embassy walls. “United States, we’re counting on you,” they say.
More than a 100,000 Cubans have traveled to Ecuador since 2008, when the government drafted a new constitution promoting the idea of universal citizenship and eliminated visa requirements for many foreigners. For many of those Cubans, Ecuador was merely the starting point for a dangerous, 3,000-mile overland trek to the U.S.-Mexico border.
After governments in Central America began cracking down on illegal border crossings earlier this year, that dangerous journey became nearly impossible. Now Borges’ group and another have ramped up their efforts to secure safe passage for the 5,000 or so Cubans who they say want to go to the United States — a move that has sharply divided Ecuador’s Cuban community.
Both Cubans Destino USA and another group, the Cuban National Alliance in Ecuador (ANCE), hold rallies outside embassies of countries situated along the journey to the U.S., asking for visas and security protection from criminal organizations during their passage.
Once in the U.S., they hope to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, a 1966 law that provides Cuban migrants who arrive by land at a U.S. port of entry with a special path to residency. They are also active on social media, highlighting the plight of Cubans in Ecuador, where, they say, jobs are scarce and acts of xenophobia and discrimination are on the rise.
Low oil prices have driven the previously booming Ecuadorian economy into recession, and pushed the unemployment rate above 7 percent, the highest figure in years. And many Cubans here say that their nationality is affecting their daily lives, preventing them from getting service at restaurants, job interviews and timely compensation when they do land work.
“I’ve experienced xenophobia here as a Cuban, including verbal harassment,” says Roxana Acanda, a member of Cubans Destino USA’s leadership. “People say, ‘What are you doing in my country? What are you doing here? Why did you come? Why did you come to steal our opportunities?’ Those are things that hurt, because we’re the same as millions of other people in the world — immigrants.”
Rafael Nodarse, president of the Association of Cuban Residents in Ecuador (ACURE) — the largest group of Cubans in the country — acknowledges a rise in local discrimination toward Cubans, but places much of the blame on the newer arrivals. His group believes the activists are engendering a backlash against Cubans by way of disorderly protests and unrealistic requests of the cash-starved Ecuadorian government. Most of the members of ACURE have lived in Ecuador for several years, often because of job opportunities or family ties as opposed to political reasons.
“I have told the ANCE to stop acting ridiculously and complicating the lives of Ecuadorians and Cubans who have come to live here,” says Nodarse, a physical therapist who immigrated to Ecuador in 2003 after visiting the country for a professional conference.
[READ: Five refugee crises that you don’t know about, but should.]
Concerned by the number of Cubans making the dangerous trip through Central America with human smugglers, ACURE supported the Ecuadorian government’s decision in December to implement a visa requirement that would slow the flow of Cubans into the country. The group also criticized the newer activists for sending an open letter to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa soliciting a charter flight to the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.
“Now, when you go to a restaurant and they see you’re a Cuban, they close the door on you,” he says. “What could have happened, if Ecuador wasn’t xenophobic in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, but is now? Something happened. And the fault is our own.”
While much of the rhetoric on both sides involves the migratory issue, underlying the disagreement are also differing attitudes toward the Cuban government: ACURE is broadly supportive of the Castro regime, while many of the Cubans seeking refuge in the U.S are fleeing what they view as a persistent climate of political oppression on the island.
As a result, some analysts suspect that ACURE is not supportive of the activists because it views them as disloyal to the Cuban government.
“The fact that ACURE accuses the protesters of generating xenophobia by raising awareness of the issues Cubans face in Ecuador has a political component, because the protesters are not on the side of the Cuban government,” says Carmen Gómez, a sociology professor who studies Cuban migration to Ecuador at the Latin American School of Social Sciences in Quito.
Some activists say that pro-government Cubans in Ecuador have targeted them with threats over social media, necessitating security precautions. During his speech outside the U.S. Embassy, for example, Borges, an ex-member of the Communist Party in Cuba, instructed the crowd to stop recording at one point so that he could provide an update on the group’s operations.
“Our way of thinking is patriotic,” says Nodarse, who says he respects the activists’ right to assemble and denies any connection between ACURE and the online threats lobbied against immigration activists. “We are with Cuba, and we will be with Cuba. The worst thing an immigrant can do is leave their country and then speak poorly of it.”
Nodarse notes that ACURE has spoken out against the Ecuadorian government’s treatment of Cuban immigrants when appropriate, most notably in denouncing the prolonged detention of undocumented Cubans at the Hotel Carrion in Quito, a facility where migrants are held, sometimes for months, before being deported.
Meanwhile, for many activists like Osmani Garrido, a Cuban lawyer and member of the ANCE, the goal is to avoid becoming further embroiled in intra-Cuban disagreements during what, they hope, will be their brief remaining time in Ecuador.
“My focus is on figuring out how to get to the U.S,” he says. “I left Cuban politics behind when I came here.”
More from U.S. News
Survey: Ecuador Best Country for Expats
Can Colombia Keep a Peace With Rebels?
In South Africa, Some Prostitutes Demand the Chance to Sell Sex – Legally
In Ecuador, Fissures Grow Among Cubans originally appeared on usnews.com
