“Your patient suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest. The covid left him with sequelae,” a nurse from the Tenosique General Hospital, located in the state of Tabasco (Mexico), told Cuban migrant Juan Graviel Mayedo García last Wednesday. “The next few hours will be decisive. He is very delicate,” he added to his diagnosis of the situation of his compatriot Luis Anselmo Sanfiel Fernández.
In the 42 days of his stay in Mexico, Sanfiel has not done well, he tells 14ymedio Maydo. “The doctor says that there is a danger of thrombosis, he has heart failure and his heart has grown,” but what is now occupying the health workers is pulmonary fibrosis. “This disease causes the lungs to harden and consumes your life.”
Sanfiel is a native of Camagüey and had plans to reach the United States, where his niece Ana is. During his journey he met Mayedo in Brazil with whom he reached the Mexican municipality of Tenosique, in the south of the country and bordering Guatemala, and It was here that the procedures to apply for refuge began. Sanfiel, 56, had passed Immigration detentions, but could not avoid getting coronavirus in a state where more than 1,500 cases have been registered daily during the month of January, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.
This Friday, Sanfiel presented a slight improvement: his oxygenation level is 98, although his heart rate was 116. “He is still on oxygen and is still under observation, also because of the temperature that does not drop,” shares Mayedo.
“This disease causes the lungs to become hard and consumes your life”
The medical report and a photograph are sent daily to one of Sanfiel’s daughters who is on the island. “I sought help and I have even written to the consulate but they can do nothing,” Daylen told this newspaper. “The only consolation I have is what they send me on my mobile.”
Two years ago, Daylen’s father worked as a mechanic at a thermoelectric plant, but the idea of a better future for him and his family led him to leave Cuba on a flight to Suriname and then moved to Brazil, where he worked, as he let his daughter know.
“We made the journey from Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia,” recalls Mayedo, “in this place Anselmo Sanfiel had a bleed due to a gastric ulcer and they had him hospitalized. He is a strong guy, we left the Darién jungle where we were eight days, three of them without eating”.
In Panama they were robbed by armed men. “They took more than $700 from us and abandoned us on a road.” They entered Mexico through El Ceibo, in Tenosique. “We paid 300 dollars, this has been the easiest money I have lost with a coyote,” mentions this Cuban construction technician.
Despite the setbacks, Mayedo, 26, would not return to Cuba from which he left on November 24, 2017. “The government is wrong and if you want to speak up and say something against it, they beat you up and put you in jail. There is no return.”
In Tenosique they got a room for 82 dollars a month. On February 15, he has an appointment at the delegation of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid to follow up on his refugee application. “Anselmo was given an appointment on February 3 due to his illness.”
“The government is wrong and if you want to speak and say something against it, they beat you to the punch and put you in jail. There is no going back”
Thanks to the money that an acquaintance sends to Mayedo, he has been able to keep an eye on his friend’s health. “I am already seeing work with a Mexican in a mechanical workshop,” he details.
Since the beginning of January, the immigration authorities have reinforced the strategy to contain the transit of migrants through Mexico. In the last week they have arrested at least 22 Cubans in various events.
On January 19, at the Huixtla checkpoint, in the state of Chiapas, members of the National Guard arrested four Cubans they were transported in the driver’s bedroom. That same day, in Tlaxcala the “securing of 32 foreigners” was reported, 13 of them were originally from the Island. And a day before, in Tapachula, five cubans They were handed over to immigration authorities after they were found hidden in “the cabin of a double semi-trailer trailer.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio 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 newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
