14ymedio, Havana, 13 March 2024 — The Cuban mules’ fear of being trapped in the crossfire of the Haitian gangs – as happened days ago with more than 250 visitors who were shopping in that country and of whom it is not known if they have managed to return to Cuba – has forced these merchants to look for new markets for buying merchandise. The Venezuelan island of Margarita, as well as Guyana and Nicaragua are some of the destinations that regular travelers to Haiti have in their sights.
“We will not sell tickets to Haiti until next month because of the current situation, which does not allow travel,” one of the improvised “agencies” that manage these trips from Port-au-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, tells 14ymedio through social networks. The price, they add, “is $500, including everything: round-trip tickets plus two days of accommodation in a house. During those two days they can go out and buy.”
Businesses that survive by selling everything from clothes and footwear to appliances and cell phones, however, cannot afford to be without merchandise for long, and, despite what ticket resellers say, it’s the airlines that decide when to resume flights. This is the case of Sunrise Airways, with two weekly frequencies (Monday and Thursday) between Port-au-Prince and Havana, and one (Friday) to Camagüey. One of its planes to Camagüey got caught in the crossfire during a gang shooting on March 1, and Sunrise has clarified that it will not resume flights “until further notice.”
“The last time I was there, I arrived in the middle of a stampede. They even killed a person in front of me. Since then I travel to Guyana, where with just over 1,000 dollars and what I spend on merchandise, I can do business”
The travel agencies, which seek to repleni