“If they look back, they die.” Fear paralyzed the Cuban migrant Yarol González when he saw the long weapons with which several subjects pointed at him, two Venezuelans and a Honduran. They were forced to undress and, after stealing money and documents, abandoned them in a place in Villa Comaltitlán, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
At the request of the United States, the Government of Mexico put a heavy hand against the migrants, which has turned their transfer into a nightmare. They have come to this newspaper in recent months complaints about withholdings in shelters in the state of Nuevo León, as well as extortions and payments to so-called “coyotes.” To which is added the fear of facing members of the National Guard, indicated by kill with bullets two Cubans and not be punished.
In an attempt to circumvent these checkpoints, foreigners pass through municipalities under the control of criminal groups, who extort them, and even run the risk of being disappeared. On November 11, a UN commission arrived in Mexico to evaluate the work of the authorities against the forced disappearance of citizens.
González also had an identity card and his mobile phone taken away. The only document he carries is an appointment that the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (comar) gave him to grant him refugee status. “These people already have our phone number and they can get into WhatsApp and ask for money,” González fears, in conversation with 14ymedio. The young man has not yet been able to communicate with his family, but assures that he will continue “as far as he goes.” For now, they are with the rest of the caravan that left Chiapas last Thursday and intends to reach the United States.
“The appointment that Comar gives them is to process a temporary legal stay with the National Migration Institute,” explained a migration agent. “This does not guarantee that when they review papers they will not be withheld. It is the problem we have on the Piedras Negras border” (the border region of Coahuila with the United States).
Mexico has detected more than 190,000 irregular foreigners from January to September and has deported almost 74,300, according to migration data
Since last November 16, 13 Cubans have been held in Piedras Negras. The municipal migration liaison, Héctor Menchaca González, commented that some have presented tourist permits and others for entry by exit, so “their status and the legality of the papers are being reviewed.” And he warned that “they could be deported.”
This Saturday a group of Venezuelans, the official detailed, was taken to another immigration instance. As of October, the Mexican government modified the permits it grants to foreigners. “One of them is the limitation to the place they are going to visit. If you are declaring or requesting permission to enter a vacation plan in a port, what do you have to be doing outside of there?”
Menchaca announced the arrival of seven buses with Haitians to the state. In addition to small groups of Venezuelans, there are more than 2,000 migrants including Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Africans, “a significant number in Piedras Negras,” in the words of the official.
Mexico has detected more than 190,000 irregular foreigners from January to September and has deported almost 74,300, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit. Last Saturday 600 migrants were discovered, including eight Cubans, who were traveling crowded together in two trailers in Acayucan, Veracruz state. And on Sunday, in the state of Tabasco, they intercepted 36 foreigners that they were transported in an ambulance.
In the unit they transported natives of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. At the immigration checkpoint known as La Venta, it was specified in a statement, the police officers stopped the driver because the ambulance did not have license plates and the driver was dressed in civilian clothes. According to the first reports, the detainees will be returned to their country.
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