MIAMI — The number of Cubans fleeing poverty and oppression on the island surpassed the Mariel exodus of 1980, as U.S. government data reveals that more than 140,000 Cubans have been detained at U.S. borders between October last year and May.
The staggering figure surpasses the 125,000 Cubans who departed from the Port of Mariel near Havana between April and October 1980, also fleeing the deteriorating economic conditions and the lack of freedoms after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
Just in the past two years, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe economic crisis on the island, the number of Cubans who left the country has jumped from 14,015 in 2020 to 140,602 by May this year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
