Evacuation of 248 Cubans stranded in Haiti concludes

The last Cuban flight arrived on the island this Sunday through the Antonio Maceo Airport in Santiago de Cuba.

22/04/2024 - 1:57pm (GMT-5) |

Cargando — Cubans stranded in Haiti returning to Cuba Photo © X/Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla

Cubanos varados en Haití de regreso en Cuba © X/Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla — Cubans stranded in Haiti returning to Cuba Photo © X/Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla

A total of248 Cubans returned to the island on six repatriation flights from Haiti, after they were stranded in that Caribbean nation, a victim of clashes between gangs and the Police, and plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis.

“We successfully concluded the operation to transfer Cubans who were stranded in Haiti to Cuba. We thank the Haitian entities involved and congratulate EmbaCuba_Haiti for fulfilling this important task of the country,” the chancellor wrote on the social networkBruno Rodriguez Grill.

The first group of Cubans, made up of 49 people, had arrived on the island last Friday, April 19, more than a month after therequest for help from the more than 250 Cubans who were refugees in rental houses, afraid to go out and not knowing when they could return to the island.

This Sunday, April 21, the sixth and last group arrived at the "Antonio Maceo" Airport in Santiago de Cuba. Thus successfully concluding the return operation,” reported the Cuban Foreign Ministry account in X.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba (MINREX)To achieve the transfer, the Cubans had to travel in a bus caravan from Port-au-Prince to the city of Cap Haitien, in the north of the country.

The journalist and head of the Communication office of the Presidency of Cuba,Leticia Martínez Hernández, expressed that the Cubans who were stranded in Haiti had gone for “personal matters,” omitting that many of them Those who travel to Haiti do so to make up for the shortages in Cuba.

Also,In that country, 53 professionals provide health services through a state medical mission.

In early March, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency in and around Port-au-Prince after armed gangs carried out an attack on the country's main prison last Saturday, leading to a mass escape of most of the 3,800 men detained in the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince.

The extreme violence in Haiti, considered the most impoverished country in the Americas, has worsened significantly in recent years.