Haiti Stops Flights to Nicaragua To Curb Migration Crisis as Daniel Ortega Continues Weaponizing Migrants Vs. US

Haiti has announced that it will suspend all flights to Nicaragua following reports that the Daniel Ortega regime is using charter flights to send Haitian migrants to the US, weaponizing these migrants to get leverage against the US.

There had been an increasing number of migrants from Haiti that have been coming into the US-Mexico border, and a lot of them actually arrived after taking chartered flights from their country to Nicaragua and then taking the long trek from there to Mexico.

According to the Miami Herald, the charter flights between Nicaragua and Haiti began in August, and there had been between 7-15 daily charters a day as Haitians seek to escape the crisis happening in their country and use Nicaragua as a springboard to the US. These flights cost as much as $4,000 per seat for the trip as many Haitians are desperate to escape their country.

A Miami Herald reporter in Haiti reported that 1,000 passengers were waiting in an overflowing parking lot near the Toussaint Louverture International Airport to board their flights. This was when the Haitian government issued the suspension. Some passengers were already aboard a plane to Managua but were made to get off.

The shutdown of flights to Nicaragua came after Haiti participated in the 11-nation meeting on migration hosted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. It is seen as an effort to halt people from flooding into Mexico and then into the US.

Would-Be Haiti Migrants Angered After Flights To Nicaragua Were Cancelled

"The magnitude of the flights are just completely unusual ... and it represents a security risk," said Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue. He questioned whether the suspension of these flights was done because of outside pressure from Mexico or the US.

"After gathering money to get me and my son out of this fragile country, now all of a sudden they stop everything," passenger Marie-Ange Solomon, 58, told the Associated Press. "I thought I was going to be freed today."

She paid $7,000 total to leave Haiti with her son.

"I have to seek a better life elsewhere because Haiti doesn't offer my generation anything," Jean-Marc Antoine, 29, also told the AP. "It's either hold a gun and be involved with a gang, be killed, or leave the country."

Nicaragua Helps Haitian Migrants Into the US-Mexico Border

President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have Nicaragua under their grip. However, they previously did not allow Haitian migrants to enter the country until now. Under the regime, they removed the visa requirement for Haitians and welcomed them in record numbers as they used their country as a bridge between Haiti and the US-Mexico border.

"I hate to use the term, but Ortega is weaponizing migration as a foreign-policy tool," Orozco noted.

Nicaragua is currently under several US sanctions because of its various human rights abuses. The government did not have any leverage against these US sanctions, so they are now using these Haitian migrants.

"We are very concerned about this issue," a Haitian government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity told the Miami Herald. "This floodgate has to be shut off."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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