Migration agents and the National Guard undertook a “hunt” against the members of the migrant caravan, he assured 14ymedio Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Irineo Mujica a day after local media confirmed the death of another Cuban who was shot last Sunday by members of the military.
Regarding the events in the municipality of Pijijiapan, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, the National Guard assured in a release that the driver of the van carrying 14 migrants tried to run them over, causing them to shoot. A Cuban identified as Cristobal died on the spot and four more foreigners were injured.
“The Mexican government is hiding everything that happened,” Mujica said. “We don’t know where the Cuban’s body is.” The activist assured that the immigration guards “threatened” the undocumented with “deportation if they said something.” In exchange for their silence, “they were given a residence card in two hours” to be able to make their way to the US border.
The Mexican press reported that among the injured is a Cuban in a “delicate” condition. However, personnel from the Basic Community Hospital Dr. Rafael López Alfaro refused to provide information on the status of the foreigners. “This is already federal jurisdiction and we do not have authorization to offer data,” they responded by telephone.
The activist assured that the immigration guards “threatened” the undocumented immigrants with “deporting them if they said something.”
“We were able to verify that there were people hospitalized,” added Mujica, who in 2019 was accused and detained for migrant smuggling, but finding no evidence against him. was released. The activist assured that in Mexico a xenophobia campaign against foreigners began.
The activist considers that “a hell” was unleashed for the undocumented, as if we were the worst criminals. And he regrets: “While President Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks of ‘hugs and not bullets’ against criminal groups, the migrants are received with bullets and sticks and the National Guard.”
This Wednesday, the Mexican president pledged to clarify the case and he acknowledged that the murdered migrants “did nothing more than leave quickly without stopping in front of where the National Guard police patrol was, they did not shoot, they did not attack and the Guard fired and that should not be done.”
On the other hand, requests from migrants seeking refuge set a record with 108,195 requests so far this year, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar) reported on Tuesday.
Migrants from Cuba are ranked third by countries with 7,915 requests. Unlike previous years, Haitians form the largest group with 37,849 requests, almost 35% of the total, followed by Honduran nationals with 33,578.
Despite this historical number of requests, Comar has only resolved 31,787 refugee cases in 2021, of which more than 2,100 are Cuban.
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