Now the number of US citizens that visit Cuba has increased. They still can´t do so as tourists, but can do so with special permissions granted by the government, in keeping with President Obama’s decision to move towards normalization of relations. But it is only when they visit the Island many US citizens get to learn other striking facts about the migratory links with their neighboring country.

As a rule, over the past half century, the average US citizen has had access only to dramatic news about the "flights from communism" performed by Cuban "freedom lovers"; or others related to the poor economic situation on the island and the discontent that prevails among its population.

Upon arrival they learn that Cubans have, since the 60's, had the unique advantage of being automatically admitted as future citizens of the United States by simply declaring that they are against the Cuban government. This privilege is not granted to the citizens of any other nation in the world.

They inquire why Cuba is treated with rules so different from the ones that apply to other Third World nationals –such as Mexicans and Central Americans– who are hunted down like dangerous criminals when they try to cross the border; or in the case of Dominicans and Haitians who, when caught at sea crossing over from their countries, are returned without compassion ... or publicity.

They are unaware that the objectives of the "embargo" to which the Cubans have been subjected for over half a century were laid out on 6 April 1960 by Deputy Secretary of State Lester D.Mallory, in a secret document declassified in 1991.

The document stated that "because the people support Castro so much, it would be necessary to defeat the Cuban revolution through disenchantment and disappointment based on dissatisfaction and  by creating economic difficulties... denying  them money and supplies to decrease their real wages and monetary incomes to bring about hunger, despair and the overthrow of the Cuban government…".

To this genocidal policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States against Cuba was added the Cuban Adjustment Act in November 1966. This act automatically allows Cubans who arrive –legally or illegally– at US territory, to acquire permanent residence just a year and a day after their arrival. This law has not only been used for propaganda purposes and to rob Cuba of doctors, scientists, technicians, artists and professionals from all areas of skills and services, but has also been brandished –menacingly– as a possible tool to provoke a migratory crisis that would serve as a pretext for military aggression.

The great social achievements and political victories of the Cuban revolution have countered the efforts by the superpower to reduce massive popular, patriotic support that the Cuban socialist project enjoys, but the more than fifty-five years of US economic war against Cuba have prevented Cuban society from shedding the migratory syndrome that affects all of Latin America and the Third World in general.

If the provisions of the "embargo" seek "to cause hunger and desperation" among Cubans, the Cuban Adjustment Act encourages them to give up the common efforts to reverse these conditions and, instead, escape to an affluent society, forbidden to other citizens of the underdeveloped world, in exchange for putting their lives at risk and producing some bad publicity against their homeland as payment for the privilege.

Those who aspire to emigrate encouraged by the Cuban Adjustment Act, serve Washington as supposed "evidence of the failure of the communist system prevailing on the island, the ruinous state of its economy and the increasing political repression by the Cuban regime."

Since 1961, the material hardships imposed on Cuba by the US economic blockade are the main reason Cubans decide to migrate; but invariably the mainstream media, controlled or influenced by the United States, identify them as political exiles, dissidents, escapees from communism or fighters for freedom and democracy.

After the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US in late 2014 as part of a process toward the development of normal ties, many Cubans feared that the migratory privileges that the Cuban Adjustment Act maliciously provides would soon disappear and were quick to make use of the immigration benefits still in force.

Thus began the new migration crisis that has left several thousand Cubans stranded in third countries due to the absurd anti-Cuban policy of the United States. As in the previous times, only the correction of these policies can provide a viable and lasting solution. This might be found in the context of the current rectification efforts undertaken by the superpower in its relations with Cuba.

December 22, 2015.

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

- Manuel E. Yepe http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/