“They threw at us the papers that they asked for at Immigration,” he tells 14ymedio Alexis Rodriguez. “They blame us Cubans for the violence, when one comes peacefully to deliver what they asked us,” underlines this young man from Cienfuegos to the accusation of the National Migration Institute, against 30 Cubans and 70 people from Haiti and Africa of ” burn tires and attack elements of the National Guard with sticks and stones”.
the migrants, according to an INM publication, “they sought to pressure not to line up and advance their appointment” and, by asking them to vacate the site. “They attacked the uniformed men.”
In the same statement it is stated that during the violent acts “some of the representatives who were carrying the documents of their compatriots dropped them and left them on the floor.”
Rodríguez, who claims to have paid 200 Mexican pesos for an appointment this Tuesday, explains that the discomfort increased because they skip places and give priority to Haitians. “You are in line for hours and they don’t give an answer why they attend to the Haitians first, who are the ones who threw the stones.”
Yaima García has been with her husband Rafael Pérez and their two children since last January in Tapachula. On Monday they were given a document with a QR indicating that they will be attended until May. “What are we going to do if there is no opportunity to work. They have already threatened us that if there is violence they will arrest us.”
“They treat us like dogs. Today the agents approached us to tell us that if we block streets or attack, they put us in jail, that’s the law,” says Cuban Rafael Pérez
This Wednesday another demonstration was called, the third of the week. “This was caused by the police. Those who give you the appointments are seven women who took us almost two hours to give the paper, because first they are on their mobile phones or eating,” says Pérez. “They treat us like dogs. Today the agents approached us to tell us that if we block streets or attack, they put us in jail, that’s the law.”
This Tuesday the Official Gazette of the Federation published the reform to the Law of General Means of Communication, which sanctions up to seven years in prison for highway blockades and taking over booths, nothing to do with migrants. Article 533 of said law specifies penalties ranging from three months to seven years in prison, with fines of 100 to 500 times the daily value of the Measurement and Updating Unit, that is, from 9,622 to 48,110 Mexican pesos.
Pérez stays with his family in the camp that migrants set up in Bicentennial Park. “There are many Cubans, on the list that was taken to Immigration there were 370 registered.” The place concentrates more than 600 people who cannot pay 680 pesos to stay in one of the small hostels in the region. Some have organized to rent rooms, but from the 2,000 pesos they charged in December 2021, now the owners are asking for 4,200.
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