Surge of Rafters from Cuba

[MrBirdman]

The Miami Herald article linked below offers another insight into worsening conditions on the island. One statistic which stuck out to me:

“U.S. Coast Guard officials have detected a new uptick in Cuban rafters...more than 100 Cubans have been caught at sea in the last five months, compared to 49 in all of the 2020 fiscal year.” [Fiscal year begins October.]

““I threw myself into the sea because it’s not possible to live like this anymore,” said Beatriz, 28, who the Coast Guard found on a raft near Key West in January. “There’s nothing in the stores and with what I earn, I can’t buy food for my daughters.”

It’s obviously an index of how desperate the situation is - prayers for everyone’s safety ?. Read the full story here.

[Nino]

"Cuba is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The nation’s GDP contracted 11% last year as the nation closed its borders to international travelers and tourism plummeted as a result of the pandemic. New economic reforms designed to boost the ailing economy have increased inflation. Many Cubans now wait in long lines to buy increasingly sparse supplies of basic goods like food.

The mother of two daughters said she boarded a raft with eight neighbors after receiving a WhatsApp message indicating the new U.S. president would allow Cubans to enter."

Call it cause and effect - and just the beginning, not only from Cuba.