San Jose, Feb 9 (EFE).– The government of Costa Rica on Tuesday warned the thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in this country that they must fill the flights established to Mexico and El Salvador so they can be on their way to the United States, or otherwise the transit visas they have been issued will be revoked.

That was the message from President Luis Guillermo Solis and Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez, who were irritated by a note in the Diario Extra, in which the owner of a travel agency said he could have offered the trips at a much lower cost.

President Solis said the publication could convince Cuban migrants not to take the flights arranged by the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, which would destroy the whole operation designed to help them get where they are going.

If that happens, the government will be forced to revoke the visas it issued them, he said.

“If this possibility is not taken advantage of because of the rumors going around…we will be forced to revoke their visas and deport them. This is not necessary, nor is it what we want to do,” Solis told a press conference.

The president said the possibilities for the migrants to resume their journey to the United States is still available through the IOM, and that the parties involved want nothing more than to guarantee them “a safe, orderly trip.”

The first direct flight from Costa Rica to Mexico for Cuban migrants took off Tuesday with 118 aboard and it was “successful,” because all reached the U.S. border, Foreign Minister Gonzalez said.

The Costa Rican government plans another two direct flights to Mexico on Wednesday, each with a capacity for carrying 118 passengers, and which will take off from the city of Liberia in Guanacaste province at 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.

Costa Rica previously sent two plane-loads of Cuban migrants to El Salvador, from where they were taken by land in buses to the Guatemalan-Mexican border, and plans additional flights this week.

Gonzalez said the IOM is in charge of the transportation and that none of the governments involved have paid or received any money for the Cubans’ transportation.

Migrants must defray the expenses of the travel, which for the route across El Salvador costs $555 and the direct flights to Mexico between $750 and $850.

“If the flights aren’t full, the operation simply collapses. This isn’t like taking a bus. If the flights aren’t full it’s not viable,” Gonzalez said.

The migratory crisis began Nov. 15 when Nicaragua closed its borders to the Cubans on grounds of risks to its security and sovereignty.

Since then Costa Rica issued 7,802 temporary visas to the islanders up to Dec. 18, when the awarding of those documents was suspended because the country had exhausted its capacity for providing shelters and humanitarian aid.

According to official figures, some 4,000 Cubans remain in shelters, and there is always the possibility that some migrants have hired people traffickers known as “coyotes” to get them to the United States. EFE