The Mexican Foreign Ministry is investigating the “alleged sale of appointments to carry out consular procedures” at its embassy in Cuba. Already last February he inspected the headquarters, but at that time he did not observe “any sign of corruption.”
The Cuban journalist based in Mexico Jose Raul Gallego On March 14, he showed his discomfort due to the failures of the website that the Embassy of Mexico in Havana enabled to request a consular appointment. “It’s always the same,” he posted on his Twitter account. “The corruption continues with total impunity.”
This complaint is one of many others that Foreign Relations have received through the Ministry of Public Administration. “The investigation is being carried out by the Internal Control Body and has written complaints and requests, in addition to the cases evidenced in the media and social networks,” he tells 14ymedio a source from the Mexican Foreign Ministry.
The Mexican government statement insists that the site citacuba.sre.gob.mx It has “multiple locks and security measures that prevent appointments from being transferred to people other than those whose data was originally recorded.”
While the investigation yields the first results, the sale of appointments persists. “For 6,000 dollars a person gets you the sure yes,” says Jorge Luis. “A friend is raising the money to do it and thus travel to Mexico and from there to the border with the United States.”
“For 6,000 dollars a person gets you the sure yes,” says Jorge Luis. “A friend is raising the money to do it and thus travel to Mexico and from there to the border with the United States”
Complaints about fraud have also reached this newspaper. A young Cuban already in the US tells that she was scammed and forced to pay $2,000. She had to travel to Trinidad and Tobago and wait a week for the delivery of the visa. From there she flew to Panama and there they alerted her that she could be detained, so she waited for them to get her a flight to Nicaragua and continue her journey by land.
This newspaper exhibited a scammer offering visas and entry into the US for $6,000. The complainants pointed to the profile of Andrés Ramiro Naranjo Pardo. The subject asked for 50% of the money for the paperwork and the second part upon delivery of the appointment, which never arrived.
Naranjo, accused the Cubans Ana María, Yanet, Anielis and Roberto, had at least 20 accounts on Facebook and several mobile numbers. For years, Cubans in their desperation to leave the Island, have been victims of scams, extortion, kidnapping and even rape.
And if on the island there are complaints about the sale of appointments to carry out consular procedures, in Mexico a group of Cubans arrested last week in the state of Coahuila, bordering the US, evidenced the attempted extortion by municipal police. “They got on the bus that was taking us to Piedras Negras and demanded money from us to continue,” said one woman.
The group of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were transferred to the Puente Internacional II migration station, even though they showed the transit permit granted by Migration on March 15.
The migrants were held incommunicado and overcrowded for several days. This Sunday some managed to evade the surveillance of the agents and tried to reach the border area, but were intercepted and returned to the immigration facilities, where they fear being returned to Cuba.
