A journey for which they’d risked everything.

By Costa Rica Foreign Minister Manuel González

For many of the deportees, the return to Cuba represents the end of what had been a We don’t disregard the humanitarian perspective. But this has cost us millions of dollars, and millions of dollars that we don’t have available. Costa Rica Foreign Minister Manuel González

A journey for which they’d risked everything.

José Antonio Quesada, 46, and his pregnant wife, who reached Miami on May 10, recounted his journey in a tale that gains in poignancy when viewed from the perspective of those who failed.

The two lawyers sold their house and everything else they owned and leaned on family in Miami to raise the $2,300 – the equivalent of five years’ salary – that they needed for the journey for airfares, bus fares and smuggling fees. They spent two months traveling from Ecuador over Colombia’s mountains and through Panama’s jungles before they were able to board a flight to Mexico and then to the United States.

But he has friends who are stuck in southern Panama because they couldn’t afford the journey and now the borders are closed.

“If we tried to come now, we would not be able to make it,” Quesada said. “I have a friend who is still stuck in Puerto Obaldia in Panama.”