This weekend the rescue of the 248 Cuban citizens who were stranded in Haiti since the end of February was completed. after several conflicts between armed groups forced the authorities to suspend flights from Port-au-Prince.
The Cuban Embassy in Haiti and the Cuban Foreign Ministry shared updates on this processpointing out that the first flights began on Friday, April 19, while the last ones ended this Sunday, the 22nd.
“We successfully concluded the operation to transfer Cubans who were stranded in Haiti to Cuba. We thank the Haitian entities involved and congratulate the Cuban Embassy in Haiti for carrying out this important task for the country,” wrote Castro Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
We successfully completed the transfer operation to #Cuba of Cubans who were stranded in Haiti.
We thank the Haitian entities involved and congratulate @EmbaCuba_Haiti for the fulfillment of this important task of the country. pic.twitter.com/qaFvZiRsQt
— Bruno Rodriguez P (@BrunoRguezP) April 21, 2024
According to the Cuban authorities, the first flight was carried out by the airline Sunrise Airways, which suspended its activities from the country’s capital, this was carried out with 49 passengers, who arrived in the province of Camagüey.
The sixth and last flight was carried out on Sunday. This plane arrived at the ‘Antonio Maceo’ Airport in Santiago de Cuba, thus completing the return operation of the Cubans.
Arrive at the “Antonio Maceo” Airport in Santiago de #Cuba 🇨🇺, the sixth and last group of Cuban compatriots stranded in Haiti. Thus successfully concluding the return operation.
Wait for a statement shortly @CubaMINREX. pic.twitter.com/KjVaWOgMKo
— Chancellery of Cuba (@CubaMINREX) April 21, 2024
It is important to remember that the plan to rescue stranded Cubans had been announced weeks ago, but the authorities did not detail how it would be carried out.
Recently, they revealed that the Cubans had to be transferred in a caravan to Cap Haitien, located in the north of the country, where air operations had not been suspended.
To do this, several buses were used to move the more than 200 Antilleans from the capital of Haiti to the north of the Caribbean nation.
It is important to remember that the Cubans had been trapped after an armed confrontation broke out near the Port-au-Prince airport. During this, Some bullets hit an aircraft that was preparing to fly to Cuba.
After the incident, the Sunrise airline and the capital’s airport suspended their activities until further notice, leaving hundreds of Cubans trapped in the middle of a wave of violence on the streets of Haiti.
They came to the country for personal reasons, mainly to buy items that are in short supply in Cuba in an attempt to deal with the shortage. Since then, Citizens took to social networks to report that they feared for their livesthis while the Castro authorities seemed to be in no hurry to get them out of Haiti.
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