MERIDA, Mexico – Mexican police on Friday detained a group of about 15 Cuban migrants who had landed earlier in Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
The Cubans were detained at a police checkpoint in Punta Sam, Isla Mujeres, while traveling aboard a public transport combi (van), reported the local newspaper Sun Quintana Roo.
Authorities located the boat in which the Cubans had disembarked on the coast of the tourist enclave.
The taxi drivers were apparently taking the rafters to a safe house when they were intercepted.
On Friday, Quintana Roo News had released a video, taken by fishermen, showing a Cuban artisanal boat near the coast of that island.
“Around two dozen Cuban rafters were spotted on the morning of Friday, July 19, near Isla Mujeres, by sea workers. The undocumented Cubans received words of encouragement from the sea workers of Isla Mujeres and were wished luck,” the post reads.
Cubans in Islas Mujeres
The arrival of Cuban migrants to this island near Cancun is not uncommon.
At the end of May, Mexican authorities 51 Cuban rafters were rescued who were on board two vessels in the maritime vicinity of Quintana Roo.
An emergency call alerted officers of the Ninth Naval Region that two “smaller” vessels with 51 crew members on board were about four nautical miles (seven kilometers) north of Isla Mujeres.
An Interceptor Patrol from the Ninth Naval Region and two vessels from the Naval Station for Search, Rescue and Maritime Surveillance (ENSAR) of Isla Mujeres, went to the designated area to rescue the crew members.
Migratory crisis
Naval health workers arrived at the scene to perform a medical examination on the Cubans and determined that they were stable and in good health.
A total of 10,464 Cuban migrants was intercepted by Mexican authorities from January to March 2024.
The arrests, which triple the previous period, occur in a context of increasing operations, in which the Mexican authorities detected a total of 359,697 people in an irregular immigration situation.
Cubans are the ninth country in terms of the number of migrants intercepted, on a list that is headed by Venezuela, with 89,718, almost one in four of the total, for 24.94%.
Follow our channel WhatsApp. Receive the information from CubaNet on your cell phone through Telegram.
