Cuban migrants and other nationalities are directed to the CDMX in search of trabjo and alternatives to survive in the country.
CDMX, Mexico. – Some 1,200 migrants went on foot before dawn on Wednesday since TapachulaState of Chiapas, destined for Mexico City to press for the streamlining of procedures and access job opportunities. The majority of the group is of Cuban nationality, According to the American agency Associated Press (AP)which pointed out that, unlike caravans from previous years aimed at arriving in the United States, it seeks to “accelerate its asylum processes and leave southern Mexico, where there are few job opportunities.”
From 4:00 in the morning, Cuban mothers, fathers and minors – together with people from other nationalities – began the march from the Bicentennial Park in Tapachula, According to Cuban activist Guillermo Rodríguez Sánchezwho is currently in Mexico City.
The communicator also added that travelers had asked him to inform on social networks about the caravan for security. “They ask me to give them the visibility of my profile, because the more this event and its trajectory are known, they will be under a media curtain that gives them a little security in the risky Andean,” Rodríguez Sánchez wrote.
In one of the two videos shared by the activist, an unidentified man describes the composition of the contingent and his immediate objective: “Here we are in the Bicentennial Park, Cubans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Africans, Haitians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorians (…) Waiting at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to leave for the DF.”
AP documented testimonies of Cubans stranded by months in Tapachula waiting for resolutions. The Cuban Losiel Sánchez said that he arrived in November 2024 with the expectation of getting an appointment in the application CBP Onebut he was forced to remain in Mexico after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, put an end to that program.
Given the cancellation, Sánchez chose to ask for asylum in Mexico, without a response so far, and denounced to have been scammed by an alleged lawyer. “Everything is expensive and is not enough for rent,” he said. “There is no job, they don’t want to give you work if you don’t have papers … that’s why we are looking for Mexico City to see if they give us another alternative.”
The Cuban Anery Sosa, 32, also said that he has been in Tapachula for a year, who stole the documents and that a Mexican girl has just given birth, which makes it difficult to work: “The plan is to stay here in Mexico,” he told the AP.
Many Cuban migrants in Mexico remain in an irregular condition due to administrative slowness, which restricts their access to formal employment, health and education and exposes them to crimes such as extortion, fraud and assaults. On previous occasions, the Mexican authorities have allowed them to walk a few days and then offer documentary support or transport in order to dissolve the groups, without being recorded if there was effective regularization.
This Monday, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, advertisement that its administration will follow humanitarian to the caravan, with facilities for regularization in Mexico or voluntary return to Cuba. “That has allowed us that since we arrived [al gobierno] No caravan arrives at the northern border, and it will be so, ”he said at his morning conference.
Previously, Cuban migrants organized in Tapachula had demanded a response to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (region) after months – even years – of waiting. “We ask President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene to resolve our situation,” said migrants at a conference held on Sunday and cited by local media. They also explained the purpose of the mobilization: “We just want us to hear and give us the documents to live without fear.”
The journeys are organized horizontally through social networks, without visible leadership, and seek to travel approximately 1,160 kilometers between Tapachula and the Mexican capital. According to calculations of Cubanetif it is not interrupted and remains without using any means of transport, the caravan would be arriving in Mexico City at some point in the second half of November.
