Ángel Salinas – Translating Cuba

A Yucatan Town is Hiding 21 Cuban Rafters

The residents of Celestún demand that the INM issue safe-conduct passes to the island’s migrants.

Celestún municipal police officers with residents of the fishing village. / Celestún City Council

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, October 22, 2025 – The residents of Celestún (Yucatán), a fishing village of fewer than 8,000 inhabitants, have been hiding 21 Cuban rafters since October 16. “People want Immigration to personally deliver a safe-conduct pass to the migrants,” local police officer Dagoberto Canul tells 14ymedio.

According to the official, the island nationals, including four women, are being held on a property near the City Hall. However, residents have asked Mayor Germán Jesús Cauich Pinto to intervene with the National Migration Institute (INM) to obtain the document, because “there is a fear that the National Guard will detain and deport them.”

Although the INM maintains that Mexico does not deport, official data certifies that in the first half of this year, 21 Cubans were expelled for “providing false information and documents and for illegally re-entering the country.” During the same period, another 74 migrants and two children were returned to Cuba through “assisted returns.” The Mexican government has justified the returns of Cuban nationals and calls them “assisted returns” [a petition that migrants supposedly sign to return to their country of origin], lawyer José Luis Pérez Jiménez tells continue reading

this newspaper.

Canul says the population has offered support to the rafters who remained adrift for seven days in two rafts before landing on the beach.

Canul says the population has offered support to the rafters who remained adrift for seven days in two rafts before landing on the beach. “Immigration has explained that they cannot issue them a safe-conduct permit for a year, that everything depends on the procedures, and that what they would be given is a document that allows them to legally stay for 30 days, during which they should use the opportunity to apply for refuge with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR),” the police officer comments.

Ixchel, who had contact with one of the women from the Island, says there’s anger because Immigration demanded they hand over the Cubans or else there would be consequences. “They’re good people who don’t harm anyone; what they want is a better life.”

The arrival of this group of rafters was reported to the Pastoral de Migración* (Migration Pastoral) in Yucatán, Officer Canul stated. “This story was confirmed to us,” he stated. However, the person in charge of the facility denied the official’s claim and said he knew nothing about the migrants.

A source confirmed to this newspaper that Enrique Puc was in Celestún on Tuesday. The local police officer believes the pastoral manager’s presence is part of the ongoing negotiations, although he warns that there has been no progress. “They have hidden them well. There are no videos or photos of the Cubans. The only thing is the footage of their arrival, and the individuals cannot be identified.”

*The Catholic Church’s ministry dedicated to serving migrants.

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Cubans Lead the Caravan of Nearly 1,500 Migrants Denouncing Extortion in Mexico

The group is heading to Mexico City and asks for support from the authorities to regularize their immigration status

The Cubans lead the caravan that left this Wednesday from Tapachula and is heading to Mexico City. / EFE

14ymedio, Mexico City, Ángel Salinas, October 2, 2025 — There is no life for migrants in Tapachula,” Yamila Sarmiento, 38, tells 14ymedio. The woman is one of almost 500 Cubans who are part of the so-called “Caravan for Freedom,” with more than 1,500 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador and Haiti, who left this Wednesday for Mexico City. “We want papers to be able to work, because money is the thing,” she says.

Sarmiento decided to join because she has been listening to the same speech at the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) for eight months: “We are understaffed; you have to wait for the message for your interview.”

She says that a couple of Venezuelans paid $1,800 to a lawyer for an interview with Comar. “The man already has papers; those of us who don’t have resources are left in a heap. In Tapachula, if you pay lawyers you can resolve things with the agents; as for the rest of us, we’re fucked.”

Rebeca García, also Cuban, told Diario del Sur that migrants are exploited and the pay is bad. They receive between 180 ($9.75) and 200 ($10.84) pesos a day . “So we can’t help our families; we left our country for them. For that reason we are leaving Tapachula, and going to the US is impossible now.”

The migrants denounce extortion by immigration agents and accuse the lawyers of collusion. / EFE

Yovani de Jesús, from Venezuela, complained that the immigration authorities “denied me the documents to regularize.” He told EFE that he has been going to Comar for seven months, first because the response did not arrive in the promised 14 working days. He was told to wait. After another long wait, he came and was given a digital piece of paper that loads but has no validity: he is still “illegal” in Mexico and without work.

Last August, a Cuban named Figueredo, 28, told this newspaper that in order to avoid “extortions” he went to the migration headquarters in mid-June. “I stood there every day for a week to get an appointment,” he complains. “You’re there, in line, and at the end they ask you to wait for the response from Comar. It never arrives; everything is corruption.” continue reading

Tapachula, even before the caravan, became a second home for 13,779 Cubans. However, as of July 5,959 of these people still did not have their immigration status regularized, confirmed a Migration employee to 14ymedio. “There are no officials in Comar, so they have delayed the delivery of documents, and this will go on for another two months,” says Yaniel Ponce de León, who still has not received his humanitarian visa.

Attorney José Luis Pérez denounced the apathy of the immigration authorities with regards to speeding up the processing of these Cubans. “Migration has violated the rules and kept thousands of people in uncertainty, stranded in Mexico. With the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the U.S., the American dream was cut short. The only thing that migrants want is an opportunity.”

Holding up a blanket that says “With papers we can contribute more to Mexico,” the migrants intend to follow the coast of Chiapas and pass through the municipalities of Huehuetán, Huixtla, Villa Comaltitlán, Escuintla, Mapastepec, Pijijiapan, Tonalá and Arriaga.

Tapachula, even before the caravan, became a second home for 13,779 Cubans. / EFE

Some of the migrants obtained motorcycles and bicycles to help the women and children. They plan to pass through twice a day: first at 4:00 am with a rest stop at 1:00 pm. The second pass-through would be at 2:00 pm, with a rest stop at 8:00 pm.

Mexico City has become a critical destination for hundreds of migrants, who remain stranded in the absence of documents. Between fear and mistrust of institutions, they are aggravating the migration crisis.

The so-called “border effect,” which was previously concentrated in border cities such as Tijuana and Tapachula, is now being felt in the country’s capital, given the new migratory restrictions in the US since the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January.

In Tapachula, some migrants are still dealing with the scams. Jean Philippe Alexis, from Haiti, reported charges of up to 22,000 pesos ($1,200) for obtaining an interview at Comar, where he says “migrants are being used and denigrated.”

Philippe Alexis left his country because of “hunger” and to help his family. “If my country was okay, I wouldn’t have to be in Mexico,” he says. “If I get arrested for not having money, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” The Haitian says that officials do not understand that “without papers there is no work or money.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Regularizes More Than 3,000 Cubans’ Status in Six Months on Humanitarian Grounds

In Chiapas, 1,024 documents have been issued, but nearly 13,000 migrants from the island remain stranded.

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, 18 September 2025 — In the first half of this year, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) has issued a total of 3,342 humanitarian visitor cards to Cuban citizens. According to data provided to 14ymedio by the Ministry of the Interior, 1,024 documents were issued in the state of Chiapas between January and June, allowing migrants a regular residence, as well as “access to health, education, and employment services.”

However, in Tapachula, a city on the border with Guatemala, nearly 13,000 Cubans remain stranded without this benefit. “I don’t see an end. Everyone asks for dollars. At Comar, to give you the interview, the lawyers, to speed up the process. I handed over money, and I still don’t have any documents,” Matanzas resident Yaniel tells this newspaper.

“I don’t see the end. Everyone is asking for dollars. At Comar, to give you the interview, the lawyers, to speed up the process,” Matanzas resident Yaniel tells ’14ymedio’.

The migrant, who entered the country last February, claims that the procedures in Mexico City are faster. A Venezuelan with whom he shared a home told him he gave 1,000 pesos ($54) to an agent and “they gave him the visa.” In Tapachula, he claims people have spent 40,000 pesos ($2,179).

Official figures indicate that 254 Cubans received humanitarian cards in the country’s capital, while in Puebla, out of 189 applications submitted to immigration offices, 186 Cubans, only two Venezuelans, and one migrant from the Netherlands were granted humanitarian cards. continue reading

Puebla immigration agent Marco López told 14ymedio that most of the Cubans’ applications were submitted last March, “just as rumors of mass deportations from the United States under Donald Trump’s orders began to gain traction.”

López stated that nationwide there are 8,114 Cubans in an irregular situation. Of these, 7,118 “have already met the requirements and are awaiting resolution of their cases,” but another 996 have initiated the process.

Attorney José Luis Pérez asserts that the Comar figures are from completed records, but in reality there are more than 20,000 Cubans in Mexico seeking opportunities to regularize their status.

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Cubans Denounce Extortion and Complicity With Lawyers in Mexican Immigration Offices

Comar employees promise to “speed up procedures” in exchange for breaking the law and charging up to $1,500.

Migrants outside one of the offices of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. / File/EFE/Juan Manuel Blanco

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas/Yaiza Santos, México/Madrid, 1 August 2025 — “Don’t be fooled! The procedures are free.” Advertisements like this are repeated in every Mexican public office where there is no fee to complete the process. Among them are those of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) and the National Migration Institute. However, in the Chiapas border city of Tapachula, according to several firsthand accounts from 14ymedio, officials at these institutions “sell everything.”

Those are the exact words of Niorbis, a native of Matanzas who has experienced it firsthand. Cubans, Colombians, and Venezuelans, he says, have paid up to $1,500 to expedite “appointments, application forms, and even recorded interviews,” but their processes ultimately are not any faster. Many of them still don’t obtain refugee documents.

Figueredo claims he tried to avoid “extortion” and went to the immigration office in mid-June. “I stood there every day for a week to get an appointment,” the 28-year-old migrant laments. “They keep you there, in line, and at the end, they ask you to wait for mail from Comar. It never arrives; it’s all corruption.”

“If you don’t pay a lawyer, they won’t give you anything, but if you pay 50,000 pesos, they promise you’ll stay in the country.”

Finally, the Cuban had to go to a lawyer named Ezequiel, who charged him almost 4,000 Mexican pesos [US$200] to expedite the process. “In three days, he resolved the eight signatures required by Comar, and now I’m continue reading

waiting for a date for the final interview.”

Another migrant, Viviana, claims that “Comar is a brothel.” This Colombian woman was denied a humanitarian visa and alleges that officials have set prices for the procedures, “ranging from 15,000 to 25,000 pesos [just over $1,304].” She says that “if you don’t pay a lawyer, they don’t give you anything. But if you pay 50,000 pesos [$2,650], you are promised permission to remain in the country.”

After three rejections, with the advice of a lawyer Cuban Alexander Barrera and three of his relatives paid 36,000 pesos [almost $2,000] to begin the process of requesting asylum.

The fact that migrants end up having to hire lawyers to undertake the process is part of the corruption. That’s the opinion, at least, of Damián, a Cuban from Holguín, who was stranded with his family in Tapachula, waiting for a refugee claim that arrived four months later than expected. He understood very well that he shouldn’t give in to extortion, but his friends
didn’t have the same attitude and paid more than $1,000 to have their cases resolved.

“Comar denies your case to force you to find a lawyer; in fact, they even suggest which one.”

“That’s where the lawyers come in,” he told 14ymedio. “Comar denies your case to force you to find a lawyer; in fact, they even suggest which one. That lawyer will handle the case for you for 20,000 or 25,000 Mexican pesos [between $1,000 and $1,300], and of course, they then resolve it, and always, always, without any kind of contract.”

The story of those who suffer these hardships is similar. Comar begins to delay emails—up to three months, the first of which the migrants must receive to continue the process from the moment they begin it—and those affected begin to file complaints. It is then that the government agency suggests something like this: “I advise you to also find a lawyer, if you are unable to do it yourself, and they will help, because we are overwhelmed.”

The prevailing opinion among migrants is: “Without lawyers, you won’t make it.” Damián says: “It’s a magic wheel they have among themselves.” In reality, he explains, the lawyers don’t carry out any procedure that one couldn’t do themselves before the Comar (National Commission of Migration). He concludes: “Regardless of whether the offices are overwhelmed or not, they are violating the law.”

Indeed, bribery—the crime “committed by a public servant who requests or accepts money or any other gift in exchange for performing or omitting an act related to his or her duties, whether for his or her own benefit or that of a third party”—is classified in the Mexican Federal Penal Code and even carries prison sentences.

“Regardless of whether the offices are overwhelmed or not, they are violating the law.”

Luis Rey García Villagrán, who is organizing a caravan departure on August 4, accused the regional coordinator of Comar, Carmen Yadira de los Santos Robledo, of “deliberately prolonging” the migrants’ paperwork. “They’re trying to tire people out. The message is clear: ’Either you pay or you don’t move forward’.”

The activist recalled that De los Santos “has a dark history as a representative of the INM in Tapachula (from 2019 to 2022) and in Yucatán (2023), and has returned to continue her acts of corruption at the Comar.”

He also pointed out the collusion between authorities and Farah Cerdio, the head of the Comar (National Commission for the Defense of Human Rights) in Tapachula. Despite the constant complaints and evidence that migrants and human rights groups have presented to the authorities, he laments, there have been no legal consequences, not even dismissals.

This Thursday, Comar employees filed a complaint against De los Santos for a series of unjustified dismissals, nepotism, labor exploitation, and non-payment. The aggrieved parties claim that the official placed relatives and acquaintances in the positions of those forced to leave their jobs. Those still working, meanwhile, said they have gone fifteen days without receiving their salaries.

“There are more than 3,000 people working in the 4,500 bars and cantinas in appalling conditions, and no one is doing anything.”

According to Villagrán, migrants stranded in Tapachula have fallen prey to labor and sexual exploitation. “There are more than 3,000 people working in the 4,500 bars and cantinas in appalling conditions, and no one does anything.”

On this topic, last Wednesday, he confronted the officials who were present at the Information Fair for World Day Against Human Trafficking, held in the auditorium of Miguel Hidalgo Central Park: “They come to take photos, selfies, while girls are exploited in prostitution, and members of the LGBT community are exploited. These events, with all due respect, are a simulation, a pretense.”

Tapachula has become a second home for 13,779 Cubans. However, 5,959 of these people remain without having regularized their immigration status. In the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, 1,533 Cubans have a Temporary Resident Card, which guarantees them legal residence in the country for a limited period and its subsequent renewal. Another 3,915 people from the Island already have permanent residency.

The Migration Policy, Registration, and Identity Unit has also issued 2,228 Humanitarian Cards to Cubans in vulnerable or at-risk situations, giving them temporary access to services and legal protection.

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Mexico Paid More Than $1 Million for 25 Medical Students To Specialize

The group is part of the 428 scholarship recipients who have been on the Island since 2021.

A group of Mexicans who completed their specialty in ophthalmologic surgery in Cuba

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, July 7, 2025 — A group of 25 Mexicans completed their specialty in surgery last June at the Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology (ICO) Ramón Pando Ferrer, in Havana. The students are part of the 428 who arrived in Cuba through the scholarships that have been reactivated since 2021 by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies of Mexico (CONAHCYT). According to one source, “Mexico spent 937,500 euros ($1,098,958) on their education.”

The Mexican students are enrolled in the 2022-2025 generation, and their return to Mexico is planned, but “there is still no date for their possible incorporation into the IMSS Bienestar health system,” confirmed the health official, who requested anonymity.

The same source acknowledged that “every investment in education is beneficial, but sending students to Cuba is more expensive than sending them to the United States, Spain or Germany.” According to the database of post-graduate scholarship recipients, a student with a scholarship in the United States costs Mexico $20,970 per year, $7,000 less than in Cuba.

“I can confirm some expenses for this group, including the payment to the Cuban Medical Services Commercialization Agency of $14,648 per year for each student. In addition to $1,277 for the CONAHCYT scholarship, there is an additional one-time payment of $1,758 to prevent desertions,” said the official.

The students are part of the 428 who arrived in Cuba through scholarships that have been reactivated since 2021 by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies of Mexico

It is cheaper for Mexico to send students abroad to the Netherlands, where the annual investment is $20,389; to Spain, $18,666; to Canada, $18,415; to Germany, $17,379; to in France, $689 dollars. continue reading

Between 2021 and 2023, the same source recalled, CONAHCYT awarded scholarships to Mexican students to study their specialty at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, the Ministry of Public Health and the Center for Medical Surgical Research.

Despite the failure and controversy that was generated in its first edition in 2021, Mexico has maintained the CONAHCYT scholarship program to study one of the 13 medical specialties in Cuba.

According to the tab shown in euros in the call itself, the prices are: pathology, 7,800 euros; general surgery, 12,500; hygiene and epidemiology, 7,800; medical genetics, 12,500; geriatrics, 7,800; rehabilitation medicine, 9,900; intensive care medicine, 12,500; internal medicine, 9,900; pulmonology, 7,800; ophthalmology, 12,500; clinical pathology, 9,900; psychiatry, 9,900; and traumatology and orthopaedics, 12,500 euros.

The information was reported shortly after seven Cuban doctors were celebrated in Campeche for a year of providing services at the Imss hospital in Escárcega: Ángel Rondon, Jackeline Naranjo, Gricelia Elias, Isabel Toranzo, Jaqueline Baquero, Juan Alberto Tamayo and Joel Solórzano.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nearly 14,000 Cubans Remain in Tapachula, Mexico, and Many of Them Are Trying To Rebuild Their Lives

According to official figures, 3,915 migrants have permanent residence, 1,533 have temporary permits and 2,228 have humanitarian reasons, while 6,000 are undocumented

Almost 6,000 Cubans are still waiting to regularize their immigration stay in Tapachula, Chiapas / EFE

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, June 30, 2025 — Tapachula has become a second home for 13,779 Cubans. However, 5,959 of these people still have not regularized their immigration status, a migration employee confirmed to 14ymedio. “There are no officials in the Comar [Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees], so they have delayed the delivery of documents, and this will go on for another two months,” says Yaniel Ponce de León, who still doesn’t have his humanitarian visa.

The Cuban said he was surprised by the list of Cuban migrants recorded by the Unit of Immigration Policy, Registration and Identity for the Government Secretary. “Although I see many more.” According to him, families “are there for one or two months and then want to leave the city to settle in Veracruz and Cancun, because they think they can get better pay there.”

Ponce de León also plans to move to the city of Veracruz but does not rule out establishing himself in Mexico City. Although he has had to sleep on cartons and eat one meal a day, he says that “you’d have to be crazy to return to the Island.” continue reading

Although he has had to sleep on cartons and eat one meal a day, he says that “you’d have to be crazy to return to the Island”

Attorney José Luis Pérez denounced the apathy of the immigration authorities toward speeding up the process for these Cubans. “Migration violates the rules and has kept thousands of people in uncertainty stranded in Mexico. With the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, the American dream was cut short, and all that migrants are asking for is an opportunity.”

The lawyer has advised several Cubans who “have abandoned their country and left behind children, grandparents and parents because they live a constant nightmare. Everyone tells you that the black market is the only way to get medicines and food. Wages are not enough, and if you protest they harass and threaten you. There is no fuel, and blackouts happen every day.”

Pérez says that migrants come to the Comar, explain their case and everything goes well, but the process, which should take a maximum of three months, takes up to six months and even a year. “There is an urgent need for the authorities to address this situation because the migration will not stop. Many Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Haitians still mistakenly think that Trump is going to open the border.”

According to figures confirmed to this newspaper, in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, 1,533 Cubans have a Temporary Resident Card, which guarantees them legal stay in the country for a limited period and its subsequent renewal. Another 3,915 Cubans already have permanent residence.

The Unit of Immigration Policy, Registration and Identity has also issued 2,228 Cards for Humanitarian Reasons to Cubans in vulnerable or at-risk situations, giving them temporary access to services and legal protection.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Five Cuban Doctors in Sinaloa Are Facing the Same Health Crisis as the Island

Health workers complain of a lack of staff and medicines, too many patients to care for, and a terrible hygiene situation.

A Cuban anesthesiologist, an ophthalmologist, a nephrologist, a pathologist, and a cardiologist arrived at the Los Mochis General Hospital / Debate

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 30 May 2025 — Going on a mission doesn’t always mean an improvement. The five Cuban doctors who arrived several weeks ago at the Los Mochis General Hospital in the Mexican state of Sinaloa know this well. The facility faces numerous criticisms for its poor conditions, similar to those of medical centers on the island: it lacks staff and medications, there are too many patients to care for, and the hygiene situation is appalling.

Hortensia, a relative of a patient at the center, confirmed to 14ymedio how depressing the situation is in Los Mochis, which is also located in one of the most tense and violent states due to drug trafficking. In this context, the Cubans—an anesthesiologist, an ophthalmologist, a nephrologist, a pathologist, and a cardiologist—have been, she admits, a “palliative” in the face of the lack of personnel.

However, the woman warns, despite the fact that “you hear in the hallways that there is a Cuban cardiologist,” her father—who suffers from ventricular arrhythmia—has never seen her and he has not “had the opportunity” to consult with the professional. continue reading

Their presence there has not represented a significant improvement in hospital care nor has it resolved their logistical problems.

In an interview with the local newspaper Debate, the hospital director, Luisa Reyna Armenta, acknowledged that there were Cubans working in Los Mochis and that thanks to Havana, “we have complete coverage” of the staff. She also said they were “quite hardworking.” The source interviewed by 14ymedio does not deny this, but emphasizes that their presence there has not represented a significant improvement in hospital care nor has it resolved the logistical problems, which are just as urgent as the staffing problems.

“What is still lacking here are pediatricians and neonatologists,” he explains. “A niece had to see a doctor at a private clinic because they don’t have these specialists here.”

Hortensia complains that there is also a shortage of medications in Los Mochis, a shortage Cubans are more than accustomed to. These aren’t basic drugs—like paracetamol, which is often available—but specialized treatments. “They never have amiodarone for arrhythmia or sacubitril to lower blood pressure. Without patented medications, you spend between 2,500 ($130) and almost 3,000 pesos ($150).”

A patient’s relative reported finding cockroaches inside the Los Mochis General Hospital (Sinaloa). / Luz Noticias

The elderly relative’s pension “is not enough,” he summarizes, another situation with which it is not difficult to find a parallel between Mexico and Cuba.

Hortensia applauds the arrival of specialists, but states: “What are they going to do in a hospital where a few months ago, patients’ families had to bring their own fans because the air conditioning wasn’t working? It works now, but the cold season has arrived.”

The woman also reported a cockroach infestation. “The incident was a scandal. In a hospital that should have all the necessary hygiene protocols is unforgivable for this to happen,” she commented. The local press reported on the situation at the time. “A nurse went to apply medication and was surprised to see them on the bed, on the table where food is placed, and on top of my father,” a patient’s relative told a Sinaloa newspaper last April.

The hospital director acknowledges that “they still don’t have the necessary supplies,” but assures that patients are provided support in the blood bank, in the neonatal ward, in the intensive care unit, and in hemodialysis—”which is very expensive”—and that they treat between 18 and 20 chronically ill patients free of charge every day.

The hospital director acknowledges that “they still do not have the necessary supplies,” but assures that they treat between 18 and 20 chronic patients free of charge every day.

The Cuban doctors in Los Mochis are part of the more than 3,000 specialists Mexico has hired to care for the population of Guerrero Mountains, the area with the highest poverty rates and one of the most insecure, due to the presence of several criminal groups fighting over drug cultivation and trafficking.

An official from the 01 health jurisdiction, which is responsible for managing health resources, confirmed to 14ymedio that there are 82 Cuban doctors in Sinaloa. “In Baca, a community with 323 inhabitants, three were sent; in Choix, where fewer than 700 people live, there are another three; and in Chávez Talamantes, there are two general practitioners.”

At the end of September there were rising levels of violence in the state, where Los Chapitos—sons of drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera, sentenced to life in prison in the US—are fighting for control of the state with a faction of Ismael Zambada, known as El Mayo. The Cuban Embassy in Mexico recalled Cuban specialists who were in the Sinaloa town of Concordia, in the municipality of El Palmito. To date, they have not returned.

The Mexican government has been promoting the hiring of Cuban doctors for more than four years. The administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador paid $5,188 per month to maintain each of the doctors on the island. This figure includes the salary—27,000 pesos ($1,351)—and the costs the government must cover for food, lodging, and transportation for approximately 966 healthcare workers. These travel expenses will also benefit the 2,135 specialists who arrived in the country this year, bringing the total number of doctors to 3,101.

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Three Cubans in Mexico on Hunger Strike Over Delay in Asylum Procedures

A court gives Immigration ten days to grant permanent residency to Ghislayne Jiménez Moret, Luis García Ramirez, and Otmara Arencibia Bustamante.

Otmara Arencibia Bustamante, Ghislayne Jiménez Moret and Luis García Ramirez in Tapachula, Chiapas / UltimatumMx

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, June 25, 2025 — The Cubans Ghislayne Jiménez Moret, Luis García Ramirez and Otmara Arencibia Bustamante began a hunger strike this Monday in front of the headquarters of the National Institute for Migration (INM) in Tapachula, Chiapas. The migrants blame the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (COMAR) for delaying their asylum procedures.

“We will be here for as long as it takes,” says Luis García Ramirez, who left the island last October. The lack of documents has limited the possibilities for this young person to find a well-paid job. “It’s very difficult because they don’t accept you for any job,” he says.

García Ramírez tells this newspaper that because of their appointments with Migration, they have lost job opportunities. “They keep you there for five hours; they don’t attend to you, and then they return you home without your process advancing.”

Otmara Arencibia Bustamante, diagnosed with breast cancer, tells this newspaper that she started the process five months ago. Despite “getting the eight signatures required” by COMAR to conduct a final interview, “they don’t tell you” when it will be held. The woman showed the Amparo [protective order] 957/25 to which she resorted to expedite the procedure, but she still hasn’t received refugee status.

A source revealed that COMAR in Tapachula “has no operational staff, translators or interviewers”

The delay has affected her income; the little that she receives from family members helps her to survive in Tapachula. “I would like to have papers so that I can work,” she says. “If I don’t have papers from Mexico, they won’t continue reading

let me work.” Arencibia Bustamante says that, despite having a unique key of registration of temporary population (CURP)*, there have been sites indicating that “it is not sufficient” to get a job.

Currently, COMAR’s headquarters in Tapachula is only providing a CURP and scheduling appointments to have a final interview with the migrant to decide whether he or she can be a beneficiary of refuge. The migration process normally involves several formalities and takes a few months. During this period, a work permit is obtained while it is decided if the applicant can become a refugee, but at present this process is not being respected by the institution in the face of an influx of migrants.

Attorney José Luis Pérez points out to 14ymedio that this group of Cubans has faced apathy from the authorities. The lawyer confirmed that the Fourth District Court “gave the INM ten days to respond to its procedure of permanent resistance.”.

A source from Migration, who requested anonymity, revealed that COMAR is facing restructuring. “There is no operational staff, translators or interviewers in Chiapas,” he said. “At the moment there are hundreds of migrants in limbo. Procedures are taking up to a year.”

El Colectivo de Monitoreo-Frontera Sur denounced the accelerated institutional deterioration that directly affects thousands of migrants and asylum seekers on the border between Mexico and Guatemala.

The organization pointed out to Diario del Sur that due to the deterioration, “COMAR’s operational capacity has been reduced, in addition to the existence of a backlog in the humanitarian flights of the INM and forced evictions without minimum guarantees, which reflects a migration policy based on omission, criminalization and abandonment.

* CURP stands for Clave Única de Registro de Poblacíon para Extranjeros, or Unique Key of Registration of Foreign Population.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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A Cuban Is Accused of Human Trafficking and Could Spend 50 Years in Prison

Moment of arrest of Yasel Vinent in Cancun, Quintana Roo

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 13 June 2025 — Cuban Yassel D. Angelo has been in prison since last Tuesday for the crimes of human trafficking and prostitution in Cancun. Authorities found a US resident document with the name Yasel Vinent on it. Officer Ezequiel Marrufo told 14ymedio that if found guilty “he could serve 50 years in prison plus be fined by the judge.”

The Cuban was reported last May by his victim, a 22-year-old woman. She told the authorities that he forced her to prostitute herself. “He charged 2,500 pesos ($132) for having sexual relations in his home.” If the service was in hotels, she had to dress as the client requested. “He charged them 3,000 pesos ($158) for 40 minutes, and the money increased for some services.” According to investigations by the authorities, Vinent obtained up to 25,000 pesos (more than $1,300) in one day.

“The woman was punished for any complaints from customers.” According to the official, “the possible relationship with a trafficking network in the United States is being investigated, but this is not confirmed.” The Cuban was found with a US resident card issued in 2017. “All the evidence is part of the process, as well as the verification of his name, because in the document it appears as Yasel Vincent, and at the time of his capture he said he was named Yassel D. Angelo.” continue reading

Document found on Yasel Vinent at the time of his arrest / Noticias Q. Roo

The Mexican women and Vinent were dating for several months until she agreed last February to move in with him. According to her statement to the authorities, Vinent went from being nice to “beatings and insults.” However, after the aggressive episodes, he always apologized.

On one occasion, she tried to leave him, but he threatened to “kill me and do the same to my family.” On advice from some close friends, the woman “took courage and returned home.” Officer Marrufo says that “such was the control this Cuban had over the girl, that he went to her parents’ house and convinced her to return with the promise that everything would change.”

Upon returning, “I experienced hell,” the woman said. Vinent let her know that she would do whatever he wanted or “my family would pay for it.” He took her cell phone and “when he could, he checked my messages and put my phone on speaker to listen to my conversations.”

The prosecutor’s Office for Combating Human Trafficking took up the case and, following the complaint by the young woman, requested and obtained from a judge an arrest warrant against Yassel D. Angelo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Tourism or Migrants, Including Cubans, the Economy of Tapachula Declines

Revenues from hotels, shops, restaurants, and pharmacies have fallen by almost 30%.

Migrants gather near the Comar (Comar) to apply for asylum. / Facebook/Rey Garcia Villa

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, June 11, 2025 — “Some businesses are on the verge of collapse,” says Miguel Reyes del Pino, a hotel entrepreneur from Tapachula, Chiapas. Without migrants, whose number has declined radically with the new US administration, and tourism (the city doesn’t have the charm of other places in Chiapas), the rooming houses, restaurants, inns, shops and pharmacies “look almost empty,” and their income has fallen by almost 30%.

Luis García Villagrán, of the Centro de Dignificación Humana A.C., explains to 14ymedio that an individual migrant’s daily expenses are 300 pesos (almost 16 dollars). “We are talking about basic expenses: travel, meals, water, buying a cigarette, a soft drink or a telephone recharge.”

Villagrán says that it was common to see migrants “eating in the market, shopping in stores, looking for places to sleep and receiving shipments. Now there is hardly anyone in the streets, and without them, the activity has dropped a lot.”

About the various businesses on the verge of collapse, the activist says: “It really hurts them. Before they did not want to see the migrants, but today, now that they’re gone, they feel the blow. Tapachula is largely dependent on migrant money, and that’s what the authorities didn’t understand.” continue reading

Yaniel Ponce de León, a Cuban, is still waiting for an email from the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (COMAR) to finalize his process and regularize his stay. “For a month I ate two meals a day of bread and hotdogs. At first they were from the Oxxo, where they sold me three for 20 pesos (a dollar),” and I got water from the tap. A Coca Cola was too expensive for me.”

“For a month I ate two meals a day of bread and hotdogs. At first they were from the Oxxo, where they sold me three for 20 pesos (one dollar),” says Yaniel Ponce de León

The migrant indicated that he slept for days between cartons in the Bicentennial Park, because renting a room cost 1,500 pesos (79 dollars) for two weeks. It was crazy, I couldn’t pay them.”

Odalys, a Cuban woman, told the local media Diario del Sur that “just to go to work, pay for transport, breakfast, a meal, some water, all simple, I spend 300 pesos, since one meal is between 80 and 90 pesos, and water is 25 or 30 pesos.”

The migrant told the same media that in the eight months she has been in Tapachula, she hasn’t been in a restaurant. “We are spending on the basics and saving money here, because what we earn is not enough for anything.”

The city on the border with Guatemala once housed up to 120,000 migrants who sought to reach the United States, but with the arrival of Donald Trump as president, “the American dream was cut short,” says attorney José Luis Pérez.

The National Institute of Migration has stopped publishing updated reports since last December. “COMAR reported 5,700 applicants at the end of last year. Certainly many migrants have returned to their country, but others continue to arrive,” says Pérez.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Delay in Asylum Procedures Limits Job Options for Cubans in Tapachula, Mexico

Yumili Acosta and Yaniel Ponce de León lost their jobs after the local government’s temporary program for migrants ended in May.

Municipal officials in Tapachula provide care for migrants / EFE

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, 5 June 2025 — Unemployed and unresponsive to their request for asylum, Yumili Acosta, Otmara Arencibia Bustamante and Yaniel Ponce de León hold the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (COMAR) in the border state of Chiapas responsible for lengthening the procedure and not giving them a date for obtaining asylum.

Acosta has been looking for work for five days. “The Oxxo [chain of shops open 24 hours] do not accept migrants,” says the woman who was part of the temporary program that the government of Chiapas reactivated in February to hire 500 people with paperwork at the Comar to sweep streets, collect garbage and paint public spaces.

On 30 May, Acosta received the last weekly payment of 1,250 pesos ($61.59). “There is work in the markets, but they pay 80 to 120 pesos (4 to 6 dollars) per day. It’s 10 hours with food,” he says. continue reading

Acosta is unaware of the existence of the Southern Border Commission, made up of deputies who this Wednesday made a tour of the vicinity of the Suchiate River and offered to regularize this group of people to integrate them into jobs on the southern border with Guatemala. “There are better paying jobs, but that’s for people with papers.” In the morning he went to the COMAR, where officials asked him to wait for a message.

Arencibia still hasn’t received the notice to go to the COMAR headquarters in the Fraccionamiento Las Vegas, in Tapachula, to make a video to complete his regularization process. Last week was critical for his health.

The legal appeal that he filed last May with the COMAR to justify asylum, says Arencibia, allowed him access to the offices and a staff member to take care of his case, but “the process has stopped, and they aren’t telling me why”.

Tour by members of the Southern Border Commission, composed of deputies from the vicinity of the Suchiate River / Secretariat of the Southern Border

Yaniel Ponce de León, another of the Cubans who saw his American dream truncated with the arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency, tells 14ymedio that it is stressful to be stopped by the police to review your temporary CURP (unique population registration key), which is granted upon the initiation of proceedings in the COMAR.

“If you forget the document, they take you to immigration prison, and there you can be incommunicado for a week,” he says, referring to the immigration stations. “I complied with the eight requests for care they asked me to sign; I was part of the temporary project that gave work to migrants; I rented a room; I had no problems. But that is not enough for them to grant me asylum.”

In April, the municipal president of Tapachula, in Chiapas, Aaron Yamil Melgar Bravo, proposed that migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti who are stranded in the municipality could be used in different construction projects for the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Corridor and the factories. No agreement has been reached so far.

“I asked if there was work on the train construction in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but they told me that they didn’t need people for now,” says Ponce de León.

Between February and March, the state of Chiapas promoted two temporary employment programs for migrants. There were 890 places opened during this period. The most recent is for fumigators to stop the spread of diseases such as dengue, malaria, zika and chikungunya.

Each of the 390 migrants is paid a salary of just over 2,300 pesos every two weeks, which is less than the average wage of 3,350 pesos for a worker. Also, they do not have medical services or other benefits stipulated in the Federal Labor Law such as the payment of benefits, a savings fund, ration vouchers and food.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Mexican ‘Coyote’ Is Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Transporting 14 Cubans

Edgar “N” appealed to a summary trial to avoid a heavier sentence and pay a $78,000 fine.

The National Institute of Migration moved the Cubans to a farm in the state of Puebla / INM

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, June 2, 2025 — Mexican smuggler (“coyote”) Edgar “N” had an abbreviated trial to reduce his sentence for the crime of “human trafficking” that he was charged with last Friday. For the transfer of 14 migrants of Cuban origin and 10 migrants from India, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of 648,375 Mexican pesos ($33,730),” said an official from the Puebla State Attorney General’s Office who requested anonymity.

The coyote avoided “under this legal ploy a sentence of 18 years in prison and the payment of almost 1,500,000 pesos ($78,000),” regretted the same source. “It may seem illogical to us, but there are cases like this, where a judge considered human trafficking a misdemeanor. There are loopholes in the law; it must be accepted.”

The evidence provided by the authorities indicates that Edgar “N” contacted the “14 Cubans through messages and agreed to transfer them in a van” for $2,500 per person. The migrants were handed over by a truck driver after crossing a military checkpoint on the road. “Unfortunately one of the Cubans told the officers that he had a photo of the deposit he had made continue reading

through Western Union but later backed out as a witness,” said the official.

Edgar “N” contacted the “14 Cubans through messages and agreed to transfer them in a van” for $2,500 per person

The van with the migrants was intercepted by the National Guard at kilometer 112 of the Mexico-to-Puebla highway, in the municipality of Coronango. The coyote said they were part of “a group of tourists and that they were supposed to be in Mexico City.”

However, “they did not present their documents,” and the driver eventually acknowledged that they were migrants. He was paid 5,000 pesos ($260), which would be given to him upon arrival in the State of Mexico. “The whole story changed after he was put in a holding cell and asked for a lawyer. At that point he changed his mind and requested a summary trial,” the same source said.

The migrants were handed over to the National Institute of Migration, and, according to the authorities, they were transferred to the headquarters in Puebla.

“The state is a forced crossing point for migrants, but the flow has decreased considerably. Since two years ago, the shelters installed in the La Asunción and San Juan de los Lagos parishes stopped receiving mass arrivals of people who came to sleep, rest for two or three days and continue on their way.”

Also, “the movement of migrants hidden in trucks and vans was reduced, and a time came when motorcycles were used to avoid detection.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Proposes Employing Migrants, Including Cubans, on Public Works Like the Maya Train

The state government of Chiapas has launched two programs to provide temporary employment to 890 people from other countries.

Deivy Gurrola, Cuban, wants to settle in Tapachula, Chiapas / EFE

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 22 April 2025 — The municipal president of Tapachula, in the Mexican border state of Chiapas, Aarón Yamil Melgar Bravo, has proposed that migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti who are stranded in the municipality be employed in different public works and factories. Among them, mentioned to EFE, was the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Corridor.

According to the official, the state has almost 400 hectares available for industrial projects that promote trade between the Pacific and the Atlantic, and between North and Central America. The migrants, Melgar Bravo told the Spanish agency, could be inserted into the crews for “the completion of the train tracks connecting the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to Puerto Chiapas.”

The municipal president has specified that the migrants “will be able to remove the containers from the boats and take them to the trains. Obviously, the other branch of the railway tracks is going to go to Suchiate (the border with Guatemala).”

However, the recruitment process has not yet started, and no date is set in the near future, as the Cuban Yumili Acosta told 14ymedio. Last February she joined the three-month temporary program that the government of Chiapas promoted for 500 migrants, most of them with asylum procedures continue reading

before the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR).

Cuban Anaeliet Salgado is part of one of the temporary employment programs in Tapachula / EFE

“In May the program ends, and we were told that we would have to wait. Everything depends on their budget. If the money doesn’t arrive, the program will end,” says Acosta, 27, who has received 1,250 pesos ($61.59) per week for five-hour days from Monday to Friday.

Cuban Yaniel Ponce de León, who is also part of the group that sweeps streets, collects garbage and paints public spaces, says that “the municipal president of Tapachula says the money is not certain. I was told (by officials) that it is more for Guatemalans.”

Between February and March, the state of Chiapas promoted two temporary employment programs for migrants, opening 890 places during this period. The most recent is for fumigators to stop the spread of diseases such as dengue, malaria, zika and chikungunya.

Each of the 390 migrants is paid a salary of just over 2,300 pesos every two weeks, less than the average wage of 3,350 that a worker receives. In addition, they do not have medical services or other benefits stipulated in the Federal Labour Law such as the payment of utilities, a savings fund and food vouchers.

Despite the unfavorable working conditions, for the Cuban Deivy Gurrola, the possibility of having a job is an incentive: “I could rent a room and support myself here in Mexico, because yes, we want to live cheaply, and we will work in able to afford that,” she told EFE. She also wants the Mexican authorities to encourage a regular stay for those who wish to work on these projects, “so they can find work quickly in established factories and companies.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexican Immigration Rescues Nine Cuban Women Who Were Working as Prostitutes in a Bar

Migrants from Venezuela, Colombia and Jamaica were also working in the bar.

Navy personnel supervising the sealing of the King Bar, where prostitution was practiced. / Quintana Roo Federal Government

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 14 April 2025 — Immigration authorities in the state of Quintana Roo are reviewing the status of nine Cuban women, two Venezuelan women, two Colombian women, and one Jamaican woman who were rescued last Saturday by Navy personnel from the King bar, located on Bonampak Avenue in the Benito Juárez municipality of Cancún, where they were engaged in prostitution and offered escort services to clients.

“The crime of human trafficking is being investigated,” an official who requested anonymity told 14ymedio. According to official data, 31 cases for this crime were opened in the first two months of the year. So far in April, 72 searches have been carried out. “None of the women stated they were being held there against their will, although there is one anonymous complaint, so the investigation is ongoing.”

Initial investigations confirmed that prostitution was taking place there. “The women were offered like fruit in the market. Entry to a private establishment cost 5,000 pesos ($248), and the fee for a single encounter reached 15,000 pesos ($745). A quarter of that was given to the migrants,” the police officer said.

The place was promoted near Bonampak Avenue near Superblock 6 as “a VIP place to enjoy drinks for discerning palates,” the source told this newspaper.

The women who weren’t in the private rooms “signed up (escorted customers at tables). The cheapest drink in the place cost 500 pesos, according to one of the migrants; they were given half of the customer’s bill. A bucket (of beer) was sold for 600 pesos.”

There is additional information about the place, such as that “the migrants had to offer dances to clients in exchange for 250 pesos, which was continue reading

obviously a lure to get the subjects to consume drinks and, already intoxicated by alcohol, end up in the private rooms.”

Interior of the King Bar, where 16 women were present, nine of them of Cuban origin. / Quintana Roo Federal Government

“The end of the American dream—this is important to emphasize—without money or papers, job opportunities are minimal. Desperation has led many migrants to seek work in beer halls, bars, and cantinas, and in these places they are targets for trafficking networks.”

Activist María Ángel Vielma explained that another way women are lured to Mexico is with the promise of jobs and other false promises. “The abuser sees what their needs are and manipulates them. It’s bait disguised as love,” she said.

This was the modus operandi of Cuban-Mexican Cristóbal Paulino Fernández Viamonte, who was extradited to the country last March, where he faces charges of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Fernández Viamonte was arrested by Interpol last July in Medellín, where he presented himself as a successful businessman. The investigation indicated that the detainee led a network based in the state of Yucatán (Mexico).

Those close to the Cuban-Mexican would “cast the bait” to young women—mainly from Cali, Medellín, and Bogotá—and offer them jobs as waitresses in Cancún and Mérida, where the Cuban-Mexican is listed as the owner of supposed entertainment establishments.

Behind that facade were the Candela, Bandidas, and Tropicana Angus nightclubs, which were raided by Mexican authorities last July, resulting in the rescue of eight Colombian victims. In one of these operations, Soledad “A,” alias La Capitana, who operated the trafficker’s illicit businesses, was arrested.

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“We’ll See if We See Each Other Again,” the Last Message Her Daughter Sent Her Before She Disappeared in Mexico

Relatives reported the disappearance of Meiling Álvarez Bravarez and Samei Armando Reyes Álvarez from 21 December. / Margarita Bravo

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico city, 12 March 2025 — Margarita Bravo has not heard from her daughter, Meiling Álvarez Bravo, 40, and her grandson, Samei Armando Reyes Álvarez, 14, for 81 days, and the Cuban consulate in Mexico, to which she appealed, asked her to “stay strong.” The two of them, along with four other Cubans, Dairanis Tan Ramos and Elianis, Jorge and Lorena, who were in Tapachula, Chiapas, have been missing since 21 December.

“Breakfast is here, we might leave now, mami. Kisses, I’ll write to you later.” This was the last audio message Bravo received from her daughter that day. Months of uncertainty and worry have followed since then. This Havana native tells 14ymedio that her daughter and grandson left in search of a better future, but their journey has turned into a nightmare.

The woman says that the last point of reference for her family members was a house near Parque Hidalgo, in Tapachula. From this place they were to be picked up by a coyote identified by the alias Chapín. “The man was paid 2,000 dollars” to take them by boat to Juchitán, in the state of Oaxaca, so that they could avoid the checkpoints of the National Migration Institute (INM).

When she did not hear from Meiling and Samei, who usually provide travel updates, Margarita dialled their cellphones, but got no answer to the calls or messages. “I don’t know what’s happening, the messages aren’t being received.” continue reading

An acquaintance, she continues, filed a report with the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office about the disappearance of Meiling and Samei. She also “presented herself at the Siglo XXI and Huixtla migration stations, but there is no record of them there.” She also contacted the Cuban Consulate in Mexico to present the case.

Dairanis Tan Ramos is among six Cubans who disappeared in Chiapas last December / Facebook/Dairanis Tan Ramos

From Nebraska (USA), another daughter, Mayelin, contacted the coyote, but he told her that he knew nothing about the Cubans, that “the National Guard probably had them.” When asked about their whereabouts, he changed his story and said that “they were probably arrested by immigration agents.”

This Chapín even suggested that they could have been victims of kidnapping by the criminal cells operating in the region. When questioned about the money he was paid for the transfer, he stated that the Cubans had left with another coyote. “I don’t have anything to do with them any more,” he said.

“We don’t know if it’s true or not, because he was the one who was paid,” says Margarita.

Meiling and Samei entered Mexico through the southern border on 18 December. They had started their journey on the 12th of the month, when they left the island on a flight to Nicaragua. According to Margarita Bravo, a couple of Guatemalan coyotes identified as Marilyn and Rafael took them to the Guatemalan border.

Among the missing is also Dairanis Tan Ramos. The migrant, from Camagüey, according to a cousin’s report on Facebook, has had no contact with her family since 18 December.

In addition to these disappearances, there has been a wave of kidnappings of Cubans in Tapachula. A man ordered “Take the Cubans away,” on his radio, to his armed accomplices, according to a witness. Since November, there has been no news of Reynaldo Leyva Izquierdo, 54, Dalviris Domínguez (47), Leonel Gutiérrez (28) and Jorge Luis Gutiérrez López (58), who didn’t make it to the USA .

In the same month, Cuban nationals Leydi de la Caridad Rodríguez Acosta and Ana Mercedes Capetillo Savón were also kidnapped and murdered. Their dismembered bodies were left in a waste tank between the Chiapas communities of Pumpuapa and Nueva Granada.

Translated by GH

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