America is facing the largest wave of Cuban immigration in its history

In Havana, following the example of David Gonzalez, thousands of Cubans, tired of the absence of prospects for the future in their country, are trying by all means to reach the United States, which is witnessing a wave of unprecedented emigration from the Caribbean island.
The 34-year-old hairdresser could no longer tolerate frequent material shortages in a country experiencing its worst economic crisis since the 1990s, nor accept his system at all, in the absence of any glimmer of hope on the horizon.
From his final destination, Miami, he said, “you lose hope. You try to imagine what it will be like in the future, but you can’t see anything.”
All young Cubans express a sense of frustration, which drives them to flee en masse. Since December 1, 2021, according to estimates by US authorities, more than 270,000 Cubans have been arrested attempting to enter the United States illegally, equal to about 2.5% of the island’s population.
This number far exceeds previous waves: when 125,000 Cubans fled to Florida from the port of Mariel in 1980, and the “Balceros” (boat people) crisis in 1994, with an estimated 34,000 people, said Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at the University of Cuba. Florida International.
Instead of traveling the 150 kilometers by boat, Gonzalez began his journey through visa-free Cuban regime ally Nicaragua, the first stop in the United States for most Cubans fleeing abroad.
The total cost of the trip was $7,000, of which $3,500 was the cost of airfare, plus what was paid to the smugglers who brought him to the United States. The amount is huge compared to the average monthly salary in Cuba of 3,768 pesos, or about $157.
Gonzales sold what he owned to finance part of the sum and borrowed the rest from a friend who had already settled in Miami. Arriving after a 30-day journey through Central America by bus and truck, he said: “I was really afraid of being sent back to Cuba.”