A group of 15 Cuban rafters was arrested last Friday by the municipal police of Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The migrants were being transported in a minibus when they were intercepted upon arriving at a police checkpoint located in Punta Sam.
Authorities reported that the same day the Cubans were handed over to the National Migration Institute, which will define their immigration status. The agency is investigating whether these people have any relationship with coyotes.
Javier Robles, a fisherman who owns a catamaran that he rents to tourists, told 14ymedio in 2022 that the “illegal” arrival of rafters to Quintana Roo, via Cancun, had been happening for some time and “nobody does anything.” This 60-year-old man said that the “coyotes” use the less crowded areas for the disembarkation of Cubans. “The point for the arrivals is the Sian Ka’an reserve, an area with little surveillance because access is difficult.”
Another of the points pointed out by Robles is Puerto Progreso, “some groups end up stopping here, although the majority are intercepted by the Navy.”
The 15 rafters detained last Friday were spotted that same day by fishermen on the high seas. In a video broadcast on the X platform by Quintana Roo News, he is heard wishing them luck on their journey.
Graviel García, a Cuban originally from Havana, told this newspaper in September 2022 that before the pandemic “there were departures through Pinar del Río,” which is 220 miles from Cancún and 211 miles from Isla Mujeres, two of the points used by smugglers and which are pointed out in the report Mar adentro: migrantes y náufragos en el mar, prepared by the United Nations. “I never contacted the coyote, I do know that they charged $7,000, a lot for that danger.”
The Isla Mujeres route has again registered other arrivals of Cubans this year. On July 13, two Cuban rafters whose boat sank 80 nautical miles north of the island were rescued by the Mexican Navy. After receiving medical assistance, they were handed over to Immigration.
Last May, Cubans Yurieski Romero Hernández, Mario Sergio Márquez Ventura, Rogelio Loaces Fuentes and Diosan Lazo Loaces, who remained adrift for 34 days at sea and arrived in the same area, received a residency card for humanitarian reasons.
Another five Cuban rafters were rescued by the Navy on May 6. The migrants had been located before landing on Punta Pájaros, a private island nestled in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.
Not all Cubans who enter Mexico illegally manage to evade deportation. According to data provided to this newspaper by the Beta Group rescue agent, Josúe Ernesto, the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador deported 774 nationals of the Island in 2023 under the category of assisted returns, a petition that migrants supposedly sign to return to their country of origin.
Meanwhile, in the US, Cuban Mario de León Díaz, who had the I-220B conditional release form – a document that authorizes deportation at any time – was released last Friday. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) was going to deport him for not having passed the credible fear interview.
Mario’s lawyer, Eduardo Soto, filed a lawsuit requesting emergency parole, arguing that the Cuban migrant’s wife had a high-risk pregnancy, published the Telemundo 51 network. Legal efforts and public pressure favored this Cuban. “He doesn’t have to show up for immigration anymore, we’ve got that off our hands,” said Marien, Mario’s wife.
Source: 14ymedio
