Liberia, Costa Rica: Costa Rica on Tuesday warned it should not be seen as an "open bridge" to America after striking a deal to start shipping out stranded Cuban migrants to other Central American countries.
"We do not have the resources" to take in any more Cuban migrants, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told reporters.
The message to Cubans aiming to get to the US was "not to keep coming to Costa Rica," he said.
Helping out the Cubans now "does not mean... we have opened the gates to everyone to flow to the United States and we are going to serve as an open bridge for them to travel to the United States."
Gonzalez's words came a day after Costa Rica announced it would fly out an initial group of the up to 8,000 Cuban migrants currently stuck on its territory to El Salvador, where they would be put on a bus to Guatemala then taken into Mexico for entry at the US border.
The hard-won agreement was a breakthrough after weeks of Central American nations snubbing Costa Rica's pleas to allow the Cubans to move on.
AFP
