Mexican Police Rescue Two Cubans Kidnapped in Mexico / 14ymedio

Office of the Attorney General of the Mexican State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. (CC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2017 — Two Cubans have been rescued from the hands of their kidnappers on Isla Mujeres, as the result of a joint effort between the Federal Investigation Police and agents of the Ministerial Police of the state of Quintana Roo. In the operation carried out on Friday, one of those implicated in the kidnapping was captured, according to the local press.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Investigation of the Kidnapping began “a thorough investigation to find and pinpoint the two victims” from Cuba who had been held by the same people who helped them “to enter Mexican territory and then demanded 20,000 dollars from their families for their rescue,” said the report.

The investigation took ten days, and on 17 February “achieved the release of the people safe and sound,” although the identity of the victims was withheld. At the time of the rescue they were in a reserve “in a mangrove area located on Avenida Rueda Medina at Pelícano Street, in the municipality of Isla Mujeres.”

Police authorities say the family of the hostages had not deposited the money for the ransom. An individual “with the initials L.J.C.P, who was the leader of the group and who demanded the ransom from their relatives in the United States, in order to obtain their release to continue on their journey,” was arrested in the operation.

In another police action the same afternoon, six people of Cuban origin including one woman were arrested, “who could not prove their legal status in the State The migrants were turned over to the Public Ministry to be taken to the National Immigration” authorities.

It is estimated that hundreds of Cubans have been stranded in Mexico after the end of the United States Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot policy last January, which had previously allowed undocumented Cubans to remain in the United States if they managed to reach US soil. For many of these stranded Cubans, the American dream has become a nightmare of extortion and disappearances.