The National Migration Institute (INM) reported this Wednesday the “arrest of 25 Cubans with irregular stay” in the Las Ceibas neighborhood, in Lagos de Moreno, in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Luis Morales, who lives near the house where the migrants were found, tells 14ymedio that the house had been inhabited for 10 days, but those who left were Mexicans. “You see a convoy arrive with soldiers and members of the National Guard with long weapons and you think it was some drug trafficker, but it turns out they were foreigners,” he declares.
Among the migrants were at least two minors, according to Morales. “They put all of them in vans and took them away. The operation did not last even 20 minutes.” INM personnel in Jalisco confirmed the arrest to this newspaper but refused to give any information about the detainees.
In the Las Ceibas neighborhood is the headquarters of the Lagos Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, which had reports of the operation on “human trafficking.” An official from the institution told 14ymedio that “no coyote was detained” and that the Cubans were possibly going to be transported to the neighboring state of Nayarit, which is five hours away by road. “They take private cars and vans to Tlajomulco, where they must go through a checkpoint, if they get rid of it, from there they are transferred to Tepic,” explains the official.
The immigration authorities did not request the support of the local police to secure the house. “We are surprised because as it is a crime of human trafficking, an investigation folder should be requested, but we did not receive any request,” explains the official, mentioning the agent of the Lagos Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.
The last january 19 the INM was alerted about a tourist bus with the Chiapas-Jalisco route that was transporting migrants. The unit was detained by members of the Mexican Army and the National Guard and when verifying the identities of the passengers they detected 32 people from Cuba and Nicaragua with forged documentation.
Authorities have conducted tours of hotels in Jalisco in search of migrants. “Hoteliers must inform the authorities about the arrival of groups of foreigners who are staying so that immigration checks their status, this is how the state is working,” details the official from the state prosecutor’s office.
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