Cuban migrants join a demonstration in Tapachula: ‘We are not criminals’

Cuban immigrants joined the protests in Tapachula, Mexico, so that the government of that country would allow them to advance in caravans to the border with the United States.

The march took place this Wednesday in Chiapas, and hundreds of people participated. They walked down a major road in the southern state of Mexico, chanting “We are not criminals, we are international workers.”

The protesters ended up gathering in front of National Institute of Migration (INM). Protest organizers have announced that they intend to process 5,000 appeals to prevent foreigners from being detained on their way to the US border.

A Cuban immigrant gave statements to Cybercopa In which he indicated that the citizens of the island were subjected to extortion in the Aztec country.

“Please help us, Cubans out there Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. We are the victims of extortion, extortion, theft and abuse in immigration prison. They don’t give us help or paperwork. “They didn’t let us leave Tapachula either,” the Cuban said.

Most immigrants come from Haiti, Cuba, Honduras and El Salvador. Their migration routes began in countries such as Brazil and Chile. Upon entering Mexico, they are stranded in Tapachula, sometimes for months, awaiting approval of their immigration formalities.

The southern city is full of people sleeping in the streets, hungry and unable to attend Siglo XXI immigration station because it is collapsed, despite being the largest in the country.

“We beg them to let us leave Tapachula, they starve us (…) Migration mistreats us, beats us and doesn’t help us with anything,” he said. Reuters Juliana Exim, Haiti is 30 years old. He also stressed that the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Gammar) does not speed up its procedures to be able to travel to the north of the country.

Mexico deployed security forces, including the National Guard, to shut down convoys and expose human trafficking routes. NGOs have denounced the use of violence against immigrants in Mexico.

EFE Luis Rey García Villagran, activist and director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), noted that this march was evidence that Tapachula is, for immigrants, “the largest prison in all of Latin America.”

“We’re so scared (…) we want them to let us go where we can work, we don’t want to go to the States, we want a chance,” said 48-year-old Anna Leslie Martin. An old Honduran who left her country with her children and grandchildren after her husband received death threats if he didn’t pay extortion.

The US government has warned people who set out on a route into the Northern Territories not to make the dangerous journey or attempt to cross the border illegally. They demanded the president’s support Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to contain caravans.

after arrival Joe Biden To power, there has been a rise in the number of immigrants crossing Mexico and trying to reach the United States. Cases of unaccompanied minors also increased.

The risks faced by migrants crammed into Mexico’s northern and southern borders are very high. They are often kidnapped, killed, or victims of fraud and extortion.

In late August around 500 migrants and asylum seekers from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Central American countries They left Tapachula for the Mexican capital to demand that the authorities expedite their cases. Families with young children and even children under one year old travel in group. The convoy began its journey after several days of protests in Tapachula to demand an expedited asylum application.

This Thursday Cubans living in Mexico called for protest Near Zocalo Square to receive the President Miguel Diaz-CanelWho will participate in the celebrations of the 211th anniversary of the independence cry in that country.

Journalist José Raúl Gallego noted that the appointment was “to pay our respects to the man who gave the order to fight, to read the names of the hundreds of people imprisoned in Cuban prisons for political reasons, and to remind him of what all the people of Cuba shouted in the street last July 11.”