The security forces of Guatemala They captured this Thursday an alleged human trafficker on a highway in the south of that country, when he was transporting fifty people in a truck. migrants undocumented immigrants from Cuba and Georgia.
The alleged trafficker, identified as Erik Alexander Alvarado Galindo, 22 years old, was the driver of the truck and was taken to a court in the southern department (province) of Retalhuleu, according to the National Civil Police.
Alvarado was surprised at kilometer 195 from Guatemala City to Retalhuleu, when he was transporting 49 people from Cuba and Georgia, who entered Guatemalan territory irregularly, the authorities pointed out, quoted by the agency. EFE.
Along with the group of foreigners was a minor of Guatemalan nationality, who remained under the protection of the Attorney General’s Office (PGN), the same source said.
The police institution explained that the group of immigrants was transferred to a headquarters of the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM), where they received humanitarian assistance while they carry out the corresponding procedures for their deportation from the country.
On July 5, two alleged human traffickers or “coyotes” were captured by police agents when they were transporting 5 highly dangerous Salvadoran gang members in a private vehicle along a highway in the southeastern department of Jutiapa.
Similarly, on June 17, two other human traffickers were arrested who were taking 12 migrants of Venezuelan, Cuban and Ecuadorian nationality to the department of San Marcos (west), on the border between Guatemala and Mexico.
Every year thousands of migrants from Central America, South America and Caribbean countries, as well as Africa, as well as other nations, try to cross Guatemala to reach the United States, in search of better living conditions.
During the first semester of 2022, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute, 1,021 foreigners who had entered irregularly were deported from Guatemalan territory, most of them seeking to cross the country to reach Mexico and later the United States.
In recent months, the number of Cubans using Central America on their way to US territory has increased considerably, a migratory flow for which Havana blames Washington for failing to comply with bilateral agreements and deepening the country’s economic crisis through the embargo.
According to recent reports from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, in the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2022, which began last October, they have reached the northern and southern borders of the United States by by land 140,602 Cubans.
EFE / OnCuba
