Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social unrest in 2016

Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social unrest in 2016
HAVANA | BY JAIME HAMRE

Priests offering New Year's prophecies from Cuba's Afro-Cuban religion
forecast an explosion in migration and social unrest worldwide in 2016.

Many on the Caribbean island eagerly wait for guidance from the Santeria
religion's annual forecast. Santeria, with roots in West African
tradition brought to Cuba by slaves, is practiced by millions of Cubans.

This year, the island's official association of priests, known as
babalawos, predicted an "explosion" of migration and "social unrest
provoked by desperation."

The yearly reading is for Cuba and the world at large, but the babalawos
did not state which predictions, if any, apply to Cuba specifically.

"The predictions of Ifa (divination system) warn world leaders that if
no action is taken, we may lead our people to a massive migration
provoked by different things, desperation among them," priest Lazaro
Cuesta told a news conference in Havana.

The flow of migrants from the Communist-ruled island jumped by about 80
percent last year as the process of detente between Washington and
Havana, announced in December 2014, stirred fears that preferential U.S.
asylum rights for Cubans may soon end.

Cuesta said war, economic hardship, political conflict and terrorism are
sparking worldwide migration.

He did not give specifics about the priests' social unrest prediction,
but offered a metaphor: "When you are in your room and it's really hot,
desperation makes you run out of the room. If we give you an air
conditioner, you stay put."

"I can be living in a hot room and I don't leave running because it's my
room," Cuesta said. "I'm living alongside everyone else in Cuba, and I'm
not leaving."

Based on this year's forecast, the babalawos recommend "establishing
favorable accords with respect to migration policy," and "reaching a
balance between salaries and the high cost of basic necessities."

Earlier this week, Cuban President Raul Castro told the National
Assembly, the country's single-chamber parliament, that an economic
slowdown is expected in 2016. Food prices have increased more than 50
percent on the island over the last four years, according to official
media. The average salary throughout the island is less than $30 a month.

"A person who economically considers himself incapable of living in the
place where he is is going to look for a better future somewhere else,"
said Cuesta.

The priests also prophesied that 2016 would bring greater foreign
investment and accords between nations, but gave no further details.

(Editing by Marc Frank and Matthew Lewis)

Source: Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social
unrest in 2016 | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-santeria-idUSKBN0UG0LA20160103