Guatemala/San Jose, Dec 28 (EFE).- The Central American Integration System agreed on Monday to carry out an initial “pilot humanitarian transfer” of thousands of Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and later to Mexico, in January, after they were stranded in the region during their attempts to travel to the United States.

The move was agreed to after a working group was set up that will have responsibility for coordinating the transfer, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry announced on Monday, without giving further details.

The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, in another statement, said that the Cuban migrants will travel by air from Costa Rica, where they have been stranded at the border with Nicaragua, to El Salvador, and then continue by bus to Mexico.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez emphasized that the agreed-upon solution benefits only the Cubans who are presently in Costa Rican territory with visas.

Costa Rica has authorized about 8,000 special transit visas to Cubans since Nov. 14, but last week it announced that it can no longer continue receiving Cuban citizens, and thus it has halted the issuance of the documents.

The crisis erupted on Nov. 15 when Nicaragua closed its border to Cuban migrants arguing that they presented risks to its sovereignty, and thus thousands of people now find themselves stranded in Costa Rica and Panama waiting to be able to continue their northward trek through Central America. EFE