Ángel Salinas – Translating Cuba

Two Venezuelans Will Be Deported for a Riot at a Center in Mexico Where 40 Cubans Are Being Held

The incidents occurred at the Siglo XXI immigration station in Tapachula, where foreigners are extorted by Mexican officials.

The Venezuelans were arrested and taken to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where they will be processed for immediate deportation. / Facebook/Pedro Gerardo López

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, August 3, 2026 / Venezuelans Henderson Villaroel Chopite and Howard David Caballero are accused of causing disturbances and setting fire to a mattress used in the dormitories of the Siglo XXI immigration station, located in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, where 40 Cubans are being held, several of them “deported by the US.”

The Venezuelans were detained and taken to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where they will be processed for immediate deportation, security sources reported. The National Migration Institute (INM) indicated that the protests stemmed from “the dissatisfaction of a group of foreign nationals with their immigration process.”

According to Luis García Villagrán, coordinator of the Center for Human Dignity A.C., this “immigrant prison” is where foreigners deported by the U.S. government are taken. “They are held here against their will for more than 10 days,” he told 14ymedio. They are locked up under the pretext of waiting to find out if Cuba will accept them, but “in reality, that time is used to extort them.”

García Villagrán asserts that the INM commissioner, Sergio Salomón Céspedes, “is aware” of the lack of transparency within the immigration station and the money that agents demand from “the relatives of Cubans who are in the United States and continue reading

on the Island.”

García Villagrán states that during Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, there are reports of “three deaths” inside the immigration station.

The migrants “are being held incommunicado and are unable to receive legal counsel.” Those with money “are forced to hire lawyers suggested by the agents, people who extort between 30,000 pesos (US$1,730) and 60,000 pesos (US$3,460) to release them” without papers.

According to García Villagrán, in the administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, there are reports of “three people dead” inside the Siglo XXI immigration station, so he demanded the resignation of the coordinator of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), Yadira de los Santos Robledo, and the head of Migration in Tapachula, Farah Gertrudis Cerdio Moisés.

Last Saturday, disturbances were reported inside the facility. The migrants were demanding their release after learning of their deportation to their countries of origin. According to data updated through October 2025, the National Migration Institute (INM) deported 21 Cubans for “providing false information and documents and for illegally re-entering the country.” In addition, 74 other migrants and two children were returned to the island through “assisted returns.”

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If Cuba Does Not Implement a Radical Change Like Gorbachev Did in the USSR, Then Washington Will Do It

Former Mexican ambassador to Cuba Ricardo Pascoe says the reforms announced on the Island are a “desperate attempt” to buy time.

“Cuba urgently needs to open its economy in a rapid manner because it is in a state close to extinction,” Ricardo Pascoe Pierce tells 14ymedio. / EFE

14ymedio, Mexico City, Ángel Salinas, June 24, 2026 — “Cuba urgently needs to open its economy in a rapid manner because it is in a state close to extinction,” Ricardo Pascoe Pierce, who served as Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba between 2000 and 2002, tells 14ymedio. The political analyst spoke with this newspaper about the 176 reforms grouped into 23 areas, announced last week by the Regime in what he describes as a “desperate attempt” to steer its economy.

However, he adds, “the conditions are not in place for what they have proposed to work, and it is certainly not going to be enough to address the Island’s problems.”

The problem with the country, Pascoe says, is that “it no longer has time; the bell has already rung, the adventure is over, the model has failed for whatever reasons.” The Regime is backed into a corner: either it “implements a radical internal transformation, as Mikhail Gorbachev did in the Soviet Union, or Washington will do it.”

14ymedio. There is talk of deeper institutional changes and opening up to private investment in an attempt to mitigate the economic crisis. Are the conditions to attract foreign investors being created?

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce. What the Cuban leadership is trying to do at this moment is absolutely overdue. They are attempting, at a time when they are backed against the wall and drowning, a perestroika (the economic reform undertaken by Gorbachev in the former USSR) while trying to avoid political reform. The problem is that the Cuban proposal actually leaves intact the entire structure of control exercised by the Army and the Cuban State.

Who is going to be interested in investing as a capitalist in an economy with a rigid monopolistic structure?

In reality, no one is going to be interested unless they see, for example, a genuine possibility of generating an adequate return on investment. But that takes many years, and Cuba does not have years available. Cuba has months, possibly a year at best.

No one is going to invest in Cuba, much less Cubans in Miami, if there is no continue reading

political reform and change, especially regarding political prisoners, which is an open wound. Ninety percent of businesspeople simply will not do it, or if some naïve person does, it’s because they are willing to lose their money.

No one is going to invest in Cuba, much less Cubans in Miami, if there is no political reform and change, especially regarding political prisoners, which is an open wound

14ymedio. Nevertheless, some people are enthusiastic. In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum says the opening represents an “important change” and has even spoken of incentives to encourage investment in the Island. Which Mexican sectors or companies would be interested?

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce. As ambassador to Cuba, I dealt with Mexican businesspeople from 2001 to 2003. Investors no longer saw investing on the Island as particularly attractive because there was no security of any kind. The Cuban government did not pay its debts and even appropriated their operations once they were established and officials saw how they worked. Sheinbaum can indulge in whatever fantasy she wants, but not even Carlos Slim, who supports Sheinbaum’s anti-liberal policies despite being Mexico’s richest businessman, is going to want to invest in the Island.

Carlos Slim accompanied then-President Vicente Fox when I was in Havana, and he told me: “There is no guarantee of any profitability here.”

Among other things, because the Cuban government’s practice has always been that when it sees a private business progressing and prospering, it immediately appropriates it. That model will continue because the reforms are not affecting the political structure, and while that may have worked, I insist, in China and Vietnam, which spent decades developing the model, Cuba does not have decades.

Sheinbaum’s proposal regarding Cuba is simply because she does not understand the situation and is promoting things based on the fantasies of advisers favorable to the Cuban regime, but it is not going to work. It is not realistic.

14ymedio. Mexico’s relationship with Cuba is more than close. Under Sheinbaum, oil shipments stood out, and now she has announced the resumption of crude deliveries through “private companies.” How would this work, selling fuel through private firms? Could Pemex be the seller, or would it have to create subsidiaries such as Gasolina Bienestar to avoid U.S. sanctions?

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce. First of all, what Mexico did was give oil to Cuba. It was not a sale, even though they said it was and claimed that somewhere in the Mexican Republic the invoices exist. No one knows where they are or for what amount. Obviously, it would be useless to try to look for those payments because they do not exist and never will because the Island does not have the purchasing capacity.

This idea that they are going to resume oil shipments through private companies simply means that the Mexican government is looking for some mechanism. However, they are not going to do it because there is currently no private company in Cuba capable of importing significant quantities of crude oil for its operations.

In reality, it would all amount to pretending that one private company is selling oil to another private company when neither of the two actually exists. I do not think Mexico will be able to do that. Furthermore, Washington’s scrutiny at this moment is such that there are really no conditions for carrying out an operation of that kind.

Ultimately, this is not going to solve the Island’s urgent needs, especially now that the U.S. has decided to seriously tighten the Cuban issue, particularly after what was voted on in the Senate, which already prohibited President Donald Trump from resuming the war in Iran, meaning they are completely shutting down that spectacle.

What Mexico did was give oil to Cuba. It was not a sale, even though they said it was and claimed that somewhere in the Mexican Republic the invoices exist

14ymedio. You say one option for Cuba is an internal transformation like the one carried out by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. Can you explain?

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce. We have to look at the historical experiences that transformed this peculiar phenomenon. Karl Marx would die again if he saw what is happening: countries that implement socialism returning to capitalism or a market economy. From a Marxist perspective, this is impossible, and yet we have seen it. We saw it in the case of the Soviet Union, which became Russia. China, which is largely a market-based economic model with a strong state presence but a one-party political system. And Vietnam as well.

The processes seen in those countries, although different, took years to consolidate, and the process was very complex. China, for example, began a transformation during the presidency of Deng Xiaoping that lasted more than 20 years.

The Gorbachev model involved his personal decapitation. In the last years of his life, he was repudiated by Russia’s new leaders, notably Vladimir Putin, who refused to attend his funeral. Gorbachev had to pay that price in order to make the change and break the system.

Gorbachev paved the way for the creation of the Russian Federation, as well as for his economic reforms (perestroika) and political reforms (glasnost).

The big question is whether Cuba’s political leadership is willing to be decapitated in order to save Cuba; that is, to carry out reform internally, without Washington’s intervention, which would involve both economic and political reform. In addition, they must change the Constitution themselves to create a democratic republic with guaranteed freedoms.

That is what the political leadership must do if it does not want Washington to intervene. They are trapped in that dilemma. I repeat, they do not have the 20 years that Deng Xiaoping had.

Fidel Castro explained to me, during a conversation in Havana in 2002, that Cuba “will never make Gorbachev’s mistake.” Therein lies the Island’s existential dilemma. The decision to change must come from the political leadership because, just as in Russia, there is no organized society in Cuba capable of rising up and changing things.

14ymedio. Is Cuba trying to buy time?

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce. These measures they have just approved are a desperate attempt to buy time they do not have. The political leadership has the same fantasy as the Mexican government, though it is a different matter. Both are fantasizing that things will change in November because Trump will suffer an electoral defeat and therefore change his policy. They are absolutely mistaken, especially in Cuba’s case.

The U.S. is not going to stop increasing pressure, so it seems to me that they are betting on an illusion, and it is not going to work.

The problem with the midterm elections is that Washington cannot reach any agreement with Havana that does not satisfy Miami, which is demanding both economic and political reform.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Lázaro Survives in Tapachula, Mexico, by Selling Cuban Coffee for ‘Five Pesos’ on the Street

“If there are no jobs for Mexicans, there will be even fewer for deported Cubans.”

Migrants at the Diocesan Shelter Belén, in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. / Facebook/Albergue Diocesano “Belén”

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, May 26, 2026 / Geraldo Benítez, a Cuban, sells bottled water in Centenario Park, a spot in downtown Tapachula where hundreds of migrants without papers have been congregating for months. His story epitomizes the suffering of his compatriots expelled from the US and deposited in Mexico, a kind of planet Mars for them. “There’s no work here, but you can’t move around either. Things are tight at the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar),” months go by and “they don’t regularize your status.”

Benítez tells 14ymedio that the deportees end up “sleeping on the street or in shelters.” In the mornings they wander around, “looking for food, because if there’s no work for Mexicans, there’s even less for elderly deported Cubans.”

At the Jesús el Buen Pastor del Pobre y el Migrante shelter, support is provided to about 40 migrants, most of them from states mired in violence.“who have no one, people who want to cross back into the United States because their wives, their children, their lives are there,” says Olga, the shelter’s founder. “There are also four Cubans; one of them is an elderly man who was deported after 46 years in Cuba. He can barely speak. I know his family sends him aid.”

Olga maintains the shelter with the profits from her store. “I don’t give them much, but those who arrive are guaranteed a place to sleep and a simple meal: rice, beans, tortillas, and water are never lacking.” The flow of migrants has disminished, and with that, the border region is facing a crisis, she explains. “That’s normal, but we’re holding on.”

Lázaro was deported by the US last February. “Without a deportation order,” he says, “they dumped me in Tapachula.” / OEM video capture

Lázaro is one of the Cubans who considered going to one of the shelters. In the mornings, he walks the streets with a thermos and a backpack, “offering Cuban coffee.” The man was deported by the US last February. “Without a deportation order,” he says, “they dumped me in Tapachula.” He recounts that he spent four years in a federal prison, although he doesn’t specify continue reading

what crime he committed.

At the Siglo XXI immigration station, where he went to try to regularize his status, he says, “the agents treated us like dogs and gave us nothing.” The same thing happened at the COMAR (Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance): “They don’t give you papers, they don’t give you anything.” The idea for the coffee came to him when he noticed that people liked the way it was made, and “for five pesos you get the Cuban flavor.” What he earns from selling it and what businesses give him for helping out “helps pay the rent and get by.”

Father César Augusto Cañaveral Pérez, of the Diocesan Belén shelter, tells this newspaper that he provides weekly support to 100 to 120 migrants. “Many of them are just passing through because they are determined to reach the United States.” Another group consists of deported Mexicans who, “after being left stranded, stay for a day or two before returning to their places of origin.”

Cañaveral Pérez laments the lack of support for “psychosocial containment,” in addition to other shortcomings. “Many Cubans seek legal support,” she laments, “but we don’t have enough lawyers or staff to handle everything involved in human mobility.”

The shelter manager asserts that the people need assistance from COMAR (Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance) to “be able to find work” and insisted that “these people aren’t asking for handouts, they want an opportunity to settle down.” He emphasizes that among these people are “professionals” who end up working in “businesses, bars, and farms where they are exploited.”

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Mexico Files a Complaint Against a Cuban Deported by the U.S. Who Was Assaulted in Tapachula

The city government accuses him of striking a worker and claims he has a record for sexual offenses in Florida.

The assaulted migrant was identified as Eduardo Tosco, who has a record for a sexual offenses in Florida. / Facebook

Ángel Salinas, Havana, April 2, 2026 – The city government of Tapachula, Chiapas, “removed” the officer on watch who on Wednesday assaulted the Cuban Eduardo Tosco in Miguel Hidalgo Plaza. Public services authorities, headed by Carlos Bracamontes, told 14ymedio that they “do not tolerate aggression.” However, they stated that earlier, the 72-year-old man had assaulted a female worker, and a complaint was filed against the migrant with the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Chiapas.

According to the Tapachula city government, the migrants involved in the incident are “mentally ill.” Luis Rey García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignification, refuted the claim and denounced “xenophobia” by officials. “The accusation is serious, and for someone to be referred to as mentally ill there must be medical and psychological evaluations.”

According to Teresa Estrada, the man “hit her in the face.” In a video* uploaded to the city government’s Facebook account, she said that “this is not the first female sentry to be assaulted and this cannot keep happening.” In her complaint, she reiterated that “violence against women must not be allowed under any circumstances, not in Tapachula, not in Chiapas, not in Mexico, not anywhere.”

Estrada said that “the sentries are not police and are not armed,” and that their duties are continue reading

limited to maintaining order, cleanliness, and taking care of Miguel Hidalgo Central Park and its surroundings.

A migrant who requested anonymity told this newspaper that the woman arrived demanding that they “remove the mobile phones” from the public outlets located in the plaza. Seeing the delay, she tried to unplug the devices and was confronted, but “they never hit her.” At that moment, “a man pushed the migrant, knocked him down, and started hitting him.”

According to the same source, Tosco was deported by the United States and had been staying in Hidalgo Plaza for some time, but “since Wednesday night he has not been seen.” The Florida Department of Law Enforcement lists him in its database as a sex offender.

Tosco is one of the criminals deported to Mexico. As Oliver, Cuban, told 14ymedio last December, these individuals “have their records erased before being sent across.” They are abandoned “without documents or money” in the country, leaving their future in limbo.

Last March, García Villagrán reported that around 50 Cubans deported by the United States have been “abandoned at dawn over the past month in different locations.” “These people have lost all their rights” and are “in a situation of statelessness.” They are migrants, he said, whom Cuba does not want and who in the United States “have already lost their rights.”

According to lawyer Roger Ernesto Goitia, the video* shows “discrimination and mistreatment of the foreign migrant,” which is recurrent “in public spaces and institutions such as the National Migration Institute, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), and health centers.”

*Note: Two videos in the original article can be seen here.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“We Escaped From Hunger,” Say Seven Cuban Rafters Who Were Rescued by Mexican Fishermen

The migrants left Pinar del Río and are originally from Havana, Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus

A fisherman from Mahahual says that sightings of Cubans are normal. “Some get swept away by the current,” he said. / Facebook

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, February 15, 2026 — The National Migration Institute (INM) is taking into custody seven Cuban migrants who were rescued last Friday by fishermen in Mahahual, off the coast of Banco Chinchorro, a reef reserve in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The migrants requested asylum and told authorities they were fleeing “hunger and a lack of medicine,” an official who asked to remain anonymous told 14ymedio.

The rafters from Havana, Matanzas, and Sancti Spíritus said they left the island on a raft on the Pinar del Río side. They recounted that the fuel shortages and constant power outages are the beginning of a country that is “falling apart.”

One of the Cubans said that “the situation is unsustainable” and that he would rather “die at sea” than stay in Cuba. The migrants are in good health and are waiting to submit their asylum application to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar).

Jany Tun, a fisherman from Mahahual, says that sightings of Cubans are normal. “Some are carried by the current, others, like what happened now, are brought to the shore by the wind,” but “nobody says anything because we are peaceful people.” continue reading

The migrants were handed over to the Navy and, after their medical evaluation, were placed under the protection of the INM (National Migration Institute).

A call alerted the authorities last Friday about the arrival of Cubans. “Los muchachos hadn’t even arrived yet and agents from the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) were already waiting for them at Banco Chinchorro. Someone must have reported them,” Tun told this newspaper.

The migrants were handed over to the Navy and, after a medical evaluation, were placed in the custody of the National Migration Institute (INM). Last October, Dagoberto Canul, a municipal police officer from Yucatán, told 14ymedio that “Mexico is no longer just a transit country due to U.S. restrictions and is becoming a destination country.” Unfortunately, he says, “the country is not prepared.”

This news desk of this paper has also received information about the routes used by the coyotes. The main arrival points are the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, due to its “lack of surveillance,” Isla Mujeres, and Cancún. “Dozens of rafters have come from Isla de la Juventud and landed in Cancún,” the official stated.

Javier Robles, a fisherman who owns a catamaran that he rents to tourists in Cancun (Quintana Roo), told this media that the clandestine arrivals have left several boats stranded on the coast, to the point that “Isla Mujeres is becoming a graveyard of abandoned rafts used by Cubans to reach Mexico.”

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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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