“It’s a scam,” Facebook users warned Roberto when he asked how reliable the ad he posted on social networks would be Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo in which he offers to cross migrants to the United States. “I pass you to the US with parole included, “read this Cuban who is with his wife in the Mexican state of Baja California.
“Don’t believe anything,” Internet user Ana María alerted him. “He has several profiles and mobile numbers. He is a scam.” Ana María shared with 14ymedio his case: “When you are desperate to get out of Cuba, you look for ways and this guy knew how to deceive us. He sold a family member an appointment at the embassy. It was all a lie. I don’t know how we believed.”
Naranjo, who presented himself as a native of Havana, was made two deposits of $ 3,000 to the BanCoppel account 4169160813668085. “When we looked for him to claim he wanted more money. He is a very skilled scammer,” warns Ana María.
Yanet, another of the scammers, was contacted by the same scammer through the same social network. He introduced himself as Andrés Naranjo and said he worked at the National Migration Institute (INM). He offered to transfer her from Guyana, where she works in a hospital, to Mexico.
“When we looked for him to claim he wanted more money. He is a very clever swindler”, warns Ana María
For the paperwork, Naranjo asked Yanet for $ 5,000. “It is very difficult to get out here, there is a lot of jungle and dangers, that’s why I shared his name in a group of Cubans, and a girl alerted me to this type and others asked me not to do any business.”
The person identified as Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo has at least 20 profiles on Facebook. In some he appears as a naturalized Mexican, in others as a lawyer, teacher, referee and even a soccer coach. In March 2021 affirmed that every weekend he shared barbecue with technical directors of Mexican soccer: “Miguel Herrera, José el Teacher Cruz, Rafael Puente (son), Francisco el Gunman Palencia “.
A migration source tells this newspaper that the people who have been victims of this trickster “are innocent” by sending money without guarantees. “They can flood the networks with accusations, the unfortunate thing is that this subject is laughing because he knows that we cannot act against him. Mexico does not sell visas. The way he has stolen them is even childish.”
In October, a Facebook user identified as Sombra de Luz reported in the group Foreigners in Mexico to Naranjo. “He is an unscrupulous thief,” he stressed, said that every time the scam changes his phone and profile. “He is discrediting the Mexican embassy in Havana by saying that he has contacts there and that he can get a visa in Cuba for Mexico.”
In October, a Facebook user identified as Sombra de Luz denounced Naranjo in the group Extranjeros en México. “He’s an unscrupulous thief”
For those days in another Facebook group, Anielis Torres exposed Naranjo as “a scammer” who even offered “apartment rentals and offered work to women.” He scammed the woman from Spiritus with the promise of giving her documents to process her visa. “Today, before 10 pm they give them to me, we stay late-night, do not eat cravings, thanks and greetings”, was one of the last messages he received before he disappeared.
Internet user David AlBaqq shared another of Naranjo’s announcements on the networks on December 4, in which he asked “truly interested people” to send him 10% of the cost of the $ 6,000 visa to a Banco Azteca account. “The rest of the money is made after being authorized by the Mexican consul in Havana.”
Currently, Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo appears on social networks as a retired worker from the Petróleos Mexicanos company. And now guarantees through social networks The crossing into the United States through the Mexicali Centro checkpoint, in Baja California, a border state with the United States, even undertakes to take the migrants “to the door of your home in Miami or in the United States city where they are Your relatives”.
For years, Cubans in their desperation to leave the island have been victims of fraud, extortion, kidnapping and even rape. In October 2021, this newspaper received the testimony of several migrants who were victims of rape during their journey through the Darien. Ana, a 45-year-old Cuban, He told Doctors Without Borders his bitter experience. She along with other migrants were threatened with guns. The women were not searched, they were passed directly to the tip of the slope and raped.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
