The Nicaraguan government blocked Cuban migrants from entering the country without a visa, cutting off what was once a popular and profitable route to the United States that had drawn the ire of the Trump administration.
The Nicaraguan migration agency announced on Sunday that it was ending an exemption that allowed Cubans to enter the Central American country without a visa.
The Nicaraguan government did not provide a reason for the change in its announcement, which was signed on Sunday by Juan Emilio Rivas Benítez, the director of the migration agency.
But the move was seen by experts as an attempt by Nicaragua’s co-presidents — Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo — to ease pressure from the Trump administration.
Ms. Murillo, who acts as the government’s spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Manuel Orozco, the director of the migration, remittances and development program at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research group, called what Nicaragua did the “weaponization of migration.”
The government previously allowed migrants from Cuba and other countries to fly to Nicaragua and continue on land to the United States, while charging them upward of $1,000 in “fees,” Mr. Orozco said.
Based on his research, Mr. Orozco found that at least 100,000 passengers from Haiti and Cuba arrived in charter flights to Nicaragua in 2023 en route to the U.S.-Mexico border. (He said the Nicaraguan government also allowed flights from countries such as Libya, Morocco, Venezuela and more.)
Now requiring visas for Cubans was the Nicaraguan government’s way of “anticipating any kind of pressure” from President Trump, Mr. Orozco said. Since President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was captured by U.S. forces last month, Mr. Orozco said there is a “demonstration of fear” in Nicaragua that “something can happen to them.”
A week after Mr. Maduro’s seizure, the Ortega-Murillo government announced that it had released dozens of detained people. It came a day after the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua had demanded the release of more than 60 political prisoners.
But Mr. Orozco said that the Nicaraguan government’s latest move was “symbolic” and “a little too late.” He added, “This was something that was required and expected of them in late 2023 and early 2024.”
When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. cracked down on the record numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border around then, he targeted the Ortega-Murillo government with sanctions and restrictions for what his administration deemed was a way to profit off migrants and facilitate their travel to the United States.
Illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border began to drop late in Mr. Biden’s term, and then reached record lows since Mr. Trump took office. Because Mr. Trump has largely cut off Cuba’s access to foreign oil with strict measures and the country is in a deep economic crisis, this meant few Cubans were expected to travel to Nicaragua now anyway, Mr. Orozco said.
While the Trump administration has been more confrontational with Venezuela and Cuba in the region, it has taken a more aggressive stance with Nicaragua than Mr. Biden.
Last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the rule of Ortega and Murillo — who have been in power since 2007 and have overseen the elimination of opposition to their power since anti-government protests in 2018 — as “an illegitimate dynasty.”
Last April, Mr. Rubio imposed visa restrictions on more than 250 members of the Nicaraguan government.
In July, the Trump administration ended protections for migrants from Nicaragua that shielded them from deportation from the United States and allowed them to work.
In December, the Trump administration announced tariffs that would reach an additional 15 percent in two years on Nicaraguan exports not under their free trade deal because of alleged violations of labor and human rights.
James Wagner covers news and culture in Latin America for The Times. He is based in Mexico City.
The post Amid U.S. Pressure, Nicaragua Blocks a Once-Popular Route from Cuba appeared first on New York Times.
