The municipal authorities of the fishing port of Progreso, in the Mexican state of Yucatán, arrested four Cubans for carrying out acts of santeria on a private beach in Chelem. “They are savages, they cut off the chickens’ heads and spread their blood,” said Gustavo Och Huerta, one of the complainants.
Och, who is dedicated to fishing, told 14ymedio that the Cubans entered a car in a prohibited area: “We thought they were tourists, but a boy who passed by on a bicycle noticed the sacrifice of animals and told us that there was a person lying on the floor and blood.”
A group of fishermen, including Och and several women, reported the incident to the authorities, who sent a squad of municipal and ecology police to the beach. In the place they found the Cubans, traces of blood, chicken heads, feathers and some semi-buried hens, which presumably had been part of a ritual.
The authorities detained the Cubans for the crime of animal abuse, a source from the Directorate of Public Security and Traffic confirmed to this newspaper. “These people were arrested, first, to safeguard their integrity, because people were very upset, and second, for killing chickens on a private beach,” said the agent from the ministerial office.
According to Penal Code of the state of Yucatan, “cruelty against an animal that causes its death” can be punished with prison, according to article 409 of this law, which establishes penalties of “one to four years in prison” and an economic fine. The detainees are in the police station at the local police station in charge of Commissioner Yohann Cutz.
The defense attorney for migrants José Luis Pérez Jiménez explains to 14ymedio that in this particular case, the detainees could file an amparo alleging ignorance of the norm. “It will surely end in a warning and a strong financial penalty,” but if “these offenders do not have their documentation in order, they could be deported.”
Meanwhile, this Monday, members of the National Guard detained 226 migrants in the state of Nuevo León, including 26 Cubans, who were being transferred in three trucks to the United States.
All of them were crammed into two levels that the coyotes had created in the vehicles. Among the people detained, in addition to the Cubans, were found 80 migrants from Guatemala, 78 from Nicaragua, 48 from El Salvador, 19 from Honduras, 13 from Ecuador and 2 from the Dominican Republic, according to an immigration statement.
The migrants were taken to the Zozaya facilities, in Guadalupe, located in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, a place that has been denounced by many Cubans for the violation of human rights and extortion attempts and threats.
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