Cubans have long sought refuge in the United States – there are roughly 2.4 million people of Cuban descent living in the US – but the level of emigration has spiked in recent years. The reason for this is economic: the COVID-19 pandemic decimated one of the Communist-led island’s last-remaining reliable industries, the tourism sector, pushing its residents to seek opportunities abroad. Nicaragua has also facilitated this mass migration by passing a law in 2021 that allows Cubans to fly visa-free to the capital Managua, from which Cubans can travel to the US by land.
Graphic Truth
Graphic Truth: the latest Cuban exodus to US shores
Eileen Zhang
By Zac Weisz,
Zac Weisz
Zac reports on global affairs, covering everything from elections and international relations, to conflicts in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. With the Trump administration keen to alter the world order, though, there’s a heavy emphasis right now on US politics – an area with which he is intimately familiar. He also reports on the cross-section between sports and geopolitics. Prior to joining GZERO, Zac was a senior national politics correspondent at National Journal, where he covered the 2024 presidential election from its inception to the dramatic finish, as well as major congressional actions during the Biden administration. Prior to journalism, Zac worked as an economic analyst for Oxford Economics, calculating the impact of various tax policies, as well as the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Born in London, he currently resides in New York City, where you can find him playing football (the original version) or watching it on television while attempting to cook up a storm.
