Two Cuban pilots fled to the Florida Keys (USA) with a motorized hang glider that provided services to tourism in the East Havana Beaches, state media reported this Sunday. As recognized by the state Aviation Club of Cuba in a statement reported by these media, the pilots landed yesterday Saturday at the airport of Key West, South Florida, aboard an ultralight aviation equipment, of the “Trike” type, with registration CU-U-1619. The club denounced the incident as a “frank violation of Cuban airspace” and “theft” of the equipment, while describing the pilots as “deserters.”
He also broadcast “to the corresponding international authorities their disagreement with facts like these” and asked that the perpetrators of this incident be applied “the sanctions corresponding to the seriousness of the case”, and that “the stolen equipment” be returned.
The two Cubans were detained as soon as they set foot in US territory after a flight of less than two hours and handed over to the Border Patrol, and now they face deportation, according to media reports from Florida. .
Remember that in October 2022 a Cuban pilot flew with a Antonov An-2 single-engine biplane of Russian manufacture, from Sancti Spíritus (central Cuba) and landed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport (south Florida). He was detained but a judge granted him asylum.
In fiscal year 2022 (October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022), 6,182 Cuban migrants were intercepted in the waters of the Florida Straits, compared to the 838 detained in the previous fiscal period.
In addition, another 224,607 migrants from the island have arrived at the southern border with Mexico in the same period, according to data from the US Customs and Border Protection Office. Since last October, so far this fiscal year, 5,862 Cubans have been intercepted by the US Coast Guard.
Since January of this year, Washington has had a humanitarian program that allows beneficiaries to enter and work in the US for two years if they have a sponsor who is financially responsible for them. Up to 30,000 people from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua can benefit from this initiative each month.
More than 10,000 Cubans have already benefited from this program so far this year, according to the US Embassy in Cuba. In parallel, the US is expelling undocumented immigrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border into its territory irregularly to Mexico. Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from US territory.
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