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MIGRATION-ECUADOR
Cubans Turn to Marriages of Convenience for Citizenship - Part 2
By Gonzalo Ortiz*
QUITO, Jul 29, 2010 (IPS) - Cuban nationals can be found every day at the busy corner of Amazonas and
Naciones Unidas avenues in the Ecuadorean capital, where the National Civil
Registry Office is located.
Hundreds of weddings between Cubans and Ecuadoreans have taken place in
the building. In addition, people from Cuba have to visit the National Civil
Registry Office to apply for or renew their national identity document or
"cédula", whether as residents or naturalised citizens.
Under Ecuadorean law, foreigners who marry natural-born citizens of this
country or who can prove that they have had a stable cohabiting relationship
for at least two years with an Ecuadorean citizen can become naturalised
citizens.
This has given rise to a surge in marriages, many of them marriages of
convenience, which end in divorce shortly after the Cuban member of the
couple becomes a citizen.
"In the last few weeks, the number of marriages involving Cubans has
dropped," a National Civil Registry Office employee who requested anonymity
told IPS. "I think they were scared by the reports of forged documents."
He was referring to the annulment of 199 marriages, mainly involving Cuban
men and Ecuadorean women, as well as the revocation of the national identity
documents granted to 170 Cubans. The decision was made by the left-wing
government of Rafael Correa after authorities discovered that the weddings
and identity cards were based on forged documents.
Foreign Minister Raúl Patiño and the government's Transparency Secretary,
Juan Sebastián Roldán, announced the measure on Jun. 30, when they also
requested the removal and prosecution of two notary publics in Guayaquil,
Ecuador's largest city.
Marcos Díaz Casquete and Julio Olvera Espinoza are accused of certifying that
certain couples had lived together for more than two years. But in some of the
cases, the Cuban citizens involved had been in the country less than three
months.
An investigation by El Comercio, a Quito newspaper, reported that in nearly
all of the cases of forged documents, the papers had been issued in
Guayaquil by two Chilean lawyers who live in Quito. They disappeared after
Roldán first referred publicly to the case on Mar. 30.
The parties involved reportedly paid the Chilean couple a minimum of 2,600
dollars for work visas and 3,500 dollars for Ecuadorean nationality via
recognition of civil unions.
Of that total, 1,500 dollars were paid up front, and the documents were
available within a month.
The investigations by Mónica Rivera, the prosecutor handling the case, found
that none of those involved had even been to Guayaquil or had met the
women who testified that they lived with the men.
"We feel cheated," one of the men involved, who was not identified, told El
Comercio. "We thought things were done here like they are in Cuba, where
you give your papers to a lawyer and he arranges everything legally."
Ecuadorean citizenship enables Cubans to travel back and forth to their
country of origin without having to meet complex requirements, like a letter
of invitation.
According to government figures on the number of entries and departures by
foreign nationals in Ecuador, some 7,800 Cubans are currently living legally
or illegally in this country of 13.5 million people.
Hundreds of Cubans residing here legally are involved in trade, carrying
clothing and accessories back to their home country. They are frequently seen
in busy markets lugging enormous canvas suitcases full of garments.
"The Cubans are really good customers, although they're not buying as much
from us as they did before," Raúl Tipantaxi, who sells printed T-shirts in the
Centro Comercial Granada, a shopping complex in the historic centre of the
Ecuadorean capital, told IPS. He said other vendors have the same impression
of Cubans.
Sales of clothes from Ecuador to Cuba began to surge when restrictions for
visits to Cuba were tightened on Cubans living in the United States.
But in Havana, people tend to prefer clothing items from the U.S., which they
say is of better quality, and now that President Barack Obama has eased some
of the travel restrictions, it is easier to obtain.
To apply for an exit permit in order to settle in Ecuador, Cubans need a
cédula, a work card or student I.D. card, a marriage certificate issued at least
90 days earlier if the aim is to be reunited with a foreign spouse, and a letter
of invitation.
Because of the pressure to obtain residency papers, there are now Cuban
intermediaries in Quito. A Cuban dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a
briefcase can usually be found outside the National Civil Registry Office.
One morning, IPS saw three women and a man contact him separately in the
space of three hours. They gave him names, I.D. numbers and telephone
numbers of contacts in Ecuador willing to be listed as employers or even to
get married.
Cubans who spoke to IPS commented that in these marriages of convenience,
the Ecuadorean partner receives between 500 and 2,000 dollars, which comes
on top of the lawyer's charges.
The intermediary serves his clients right there, on the sidewalk. He works with
at least four other Cubans, to whom he hands the information he gets from
the Cubans who approach him. The National Civil Registry Office official who
spoke to IPS, watching the same comings and goings, says he hopes
everything is done legally.
The policy of not requiring visas from any foreign nationals is part of the
concept of "universal citizenship" laid out by the constitution approved in
2008 in Ecuador.
But in a modification of the policy, since 2009, Colombian citizens have been
required to provide a certificate issued in their country and registered with an
Ecuadorean consulate showing that they have no criminal record.
The new policy was adopted in response to the huge influx of Colombians
forced to flee that country's decades-old armed conflict.
An estimated 300,000 Colombians are now living in Ecuador, 58,000 of
whom have been granted official refugee status by the state. However, the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
considers that 130,000 other refugee applications should be approved.
* Patricia Grogg in Havana contributed to this article.
(END)
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