Lorey Saman – Translating Cuba

Number of Cuban Migrants Crossing the Darian Migrants Doubles

A group of Cubans during their journey through the Darien jungle in 2020. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 27 September 2021 — Cuba is the country with the second most migrants (10,742) who have crossed into Panama through the Darien jungle in the first eight months of 2021. The only country that surpasses it, which is far ahead, is Haiti, with 43,623, according to statistics from the National Migration Service of that country.

Since last June, Haiti and Cuba report a considerable increase in irregular migration through Panamanian territory with the aim of reaching the United States. The Island, with 2,600 a month, doubled the average of those who entered each month between January and May.

The increase in the transit of Cubans through South and Central America is also reflected in the latest figures published by Mexico’s National Commission for Refugees (Comar). In total, 7,375 nationals of the Island have requested refuge, which are surpassed in this case by Honduras (29,699) and Haiti (18,883).

Given the delay in refugee processing in the city of Tapachula continue reading

, the land port of entry for migrants, in the south of the Mexican state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, many choose to continue north, moving through the country without documents.

The most recent were those that gathered by the thousands in the middle of this month under a bridge on the border that connects Ciudad Acuña, in Mexico, with Del Rio, in Texas. They were mostly Haitians, but there were also Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, according to authorities’ reports.

In this regard, the Biden Administration announced last weekend that thousands of Haitians and other nationalities requesting asylum in that country have already been released into the United States.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Mexico’s secretary of National Security, told local media that at first 12,400 migrants were released and said that his office follows current law when determining whether to deport them or not. In addition to this figure, some 2,000 Haitians have been returned by plane to their country, 8,000 returned voluntarily to Mexico and 5,000 were transferred to US reception centers.

While the migratory crisis on the US border seems controlled for the moment, in the south of the continent, in Necoclí (Colombia), the tensions continue to center on the thousands of foreigners who crowd in that municipality while they wait to continue on their way to the US.

The authorities report that in that area there are around 20,000 people waiting to cross the Colombian border with Panama. With quotas restricted to 500 people a day, many will have to wait more than a month in this town on the Gulf of Urabá.

Wilfredo Francisco Menco, representative of the Public Defender of the People, told El Espectador that many migrants are in a very vulnerable situation because not everyone can rent a room and several have had to set up camps on the street. “These precarious conditions in which they live are generating health problems for them.”

Added to this are, among other problems, the shortage of drinking water and the increase in garbage production, which went from 15 to 45 tons per day. According to Canal RCN, the health system is on the verge of collapse due to the fact that the municipal hospital does not provide enough to care for locals and foreigners. In addition, the food that reaches the area is not enough to feed everyone.

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Costa Rica Gave Refuge to 249 Cubans Between January and April, Versus a Mere 48 the Previous Year

Cubans stranded in Costa Rica during the migration crisis of late 2015 and early 2016. (Capture)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 24 August 2021 — Costa Rica granted refugee status to 249 Cubans between January and April of 2021, a considerable increase compared to the 48 it granted in the whole of last year. According to the latest figures published by the General Directorate of Migration and Alien Affairs, most of these procedures are filed by people arriving in the country from Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Although Cubans historically did not belong to one of the migrant groups that benefit most from refuge in the Central American nation, the rise in numbers may be related to the special asylum category, which began to be implemented in mid-November and which the Costa Rican government decided to expand at the end of last month.

The process takes into account migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua who “have applied for refugee recognition after January 1, 2010 and before March 18, 2022” and remained “continuously in the national territory during the same period.”

Despite the increase of refugees in the first four months of the year, the Cuban Embassy in Costa Rica continue reading

informed Radio Monumental “that these are not persecuted citizens” and that the migrants left the island legally.

The consular headquarters insisted that the Cubans “are not leaving a nation at war, are not in danger of death, nor do they meet the characteristics to be refugees, but they only seeking to settle in the United States,” the local media quoted the local media as saying.

However, Migración y Extranjería stated last year that the special asylum category was implemented because, since 2014, Costa Rica has registered a dramatic increase in refugee applications from Cubans, a group that is “changing its migratory behavior” and seeking to settle in the country.

With the extension of the special asylum category, Costa Rican authorities intend to provide migrants with legal residence in the country and facilitate the corresponding documentation so that they can carry out work activities.

In 2018, Cuba and Costa Rica signed an agreement on migration matters, in order to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the fight against irregular migration, human smuggling and trafficking, as well as associated crimes.

The Central American country is an obligatory route for Cubans marching towards northern Mexico to cross the border and seek political asylum in the United States. After Joe Biden came to power and announced a more tolerant immigration policy, thousands of Cuban nationals living in countries such as Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, have taken the route to North America.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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In the First Six Months of 2021 More Cubans Arrived in Mexico than in the Entire Previous Year

Cuba continues in third place by country, only surpassed by Honduras (26,557) and Haiti (13,255). (New Digital Life)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, August 4, 2021 — Refugee applications by Cubans in Mexico continue to grow strongly and already exceed last year’s figures. In the first six months of 2021, there were 6,446 petitions, compared to 5,778 during all of 2020.

According to the latest statistics published by the National Refugees Commission of Mexico (COMAR), Cuba continues in third place by country, only surpassed by Honduras (26,557) and Haiti (13,255), and followed by nationals from El Salvador, with 4,402 requests, and in fifth place by Venezuelans, with 3,558.

In the last eight years, 3,361 Cubans have been granted asylum, with a considerable increase in recent months. In the first six months of 2021 alone, 1,739 were approved. Thousands of Cuban nationals who initiate the procedure with COMAR don’t finish it, since their objective is to obtain a humanitarian visa to be able to transit through the country toward the northern border, cross into the United States, and request asylum there.

In any case, every day the number of Cubans who decide to live in Mexico grows. The latest report from continue reading

the National Migration Institute (INM) indicates that between January and June, 10,995 processed their legal stay in the country or renewed their residence.

In the last six months of 2020, the 8,258 Cubans who applied at the Migration offices were surpassed only by 14,344 from Venezuela and 9,472 from Colombia.

On the southern border, due to the increase in the migratory flow, delays in refugee processing have been reported. In mid-July and following the announcement made by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to provide humanitarian aid to the Island, Cubans stranded in Tapachula requested that their immigration applications be expedited and that they be granted humanitarian visas.

“The action of the Mexican government to help Cuba is very good, but I think it should start with the thousands of Cubans who are stranded on the southern border without a document to continue on or to remain legally in Mexico,” Carlos Quesada, a Cuban, told a reporter for the El Heraldo Chiapas newspaper.

Another Cuban migrant, Imarais Restrepo, told the paper that she has been in Chiapas for two years and was denied political asylum, but is again trying to obtain it. She also asked the Mexican president for his intervention to speed up the procedures: “I think it will now be easier to obtain our documents in order for us to have more peace of mind in this country.”

On the other hand, on the border with the United States the irregular entry of immigrants is complicated. The Biden Administration officially resumed rapid deportations last Friday by sending undocumented immigrants by air to their countries of origin in Central America.

The Department of Homeland Security reported that the “expedited removal process is a legal means of safely managing our border, and is a step toward our broader goal of safe and orderly immigration processing.”

A day earlier, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a strategy to address migration from Central America, which, in addition to combating corruption and violence in the region, has the support of other governments and U.S. companies.

The plan focuses on Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, countries that make up the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America, where the largest flow of migrants seeking to reach U.S. soil comes from. Harris admitted that her country’s commitment “has often been inconsistent” and in recent years engagement in the region had been “significantly pulled back.”

Meanwhile, immigrants who manage to enter the United States illegally could be vaccinated against Covid-19. As reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, the government is studying immunization only for those temporarily in the custody of the U.S. authorities.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Colombian Authorities Intercept 18 Cubans in the Gulf of Uraba

The interception occurred at night, a time when navigation is not allowed in the Urabá Sea. (Colombian Navy)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, August 6, 2021 — The Colombian National Navy intercepted a boat carrying 18 undocumented Cubans in the Gulf of Urabá, in the north of the country, El Tiempo newspaper reported this Friday. This area of the Caribbean Sea, which connects towns such as Necoclí and Capurganá, is a necessary route for migrants seeking to cross into Panama through the Darien jungle on their way to the United States.

The authorities reported that a total of 19 migrants were on board, including two minors and one identified as a Chilean national. The interception took place at night, during hours when navigation is prohibited on the Urabá Sea.

Upon noticing the Navy’s presence, the boat moved away from the area until it landed on the coast of Punta Yarumal, in the town of Turbo, the authorities said. “Three subjects managed to flee, while the migrants were transported to the Urabá Coast Guard Station, where they received food and medical attention.” continue reading

The Navy confirmed that shortly afterwards the foreigners were turned over to the immigration authorities, and the boat in which they were transported was seized.

The Colombian government has reinforced operations in the Gulf of Urabá after the migration crisis in the municipality of Necoclí, where more than 10,000 migrants remain stranded, including Haitians, Cubans, Africans, Venezuelans, and Asians. Four Coast Guard units and two ships were reassigned to the area to control the flow of illegal boats that transport migrants, El Tiempo reports.

The director of Colombia Migration, Juan Francisco Espinosa, confirmed via Twitter that “there is a reinforcement” of operations by the Navy and the Police due to the crisis and that “a process of strengthening the military presence is being developed” on the border with Panama to “avoid the illegal entry of migrants.”

Espinosa also reported that in the coming days they will set up a permanent office in Necoclí to serve the migrant population transiting through that municipality on their journey to the United States, and announced a meeting for this Friday between foreign ministers of the region.

Meanwhile, in Necoclí the crisis due to the presence of thousands of migrants is worsening. Espinosa warned the press that there is a health alert among this group of foreigners for a possible “measles outbreak.”

“The Ministry of Health is developing strategies to reinforce its presence in that area, where we were notified that unfortunately an outbreak of measles and other diseases could be occurring,” the official explained.

Days ago, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office had indicated that weather factors caused a delay in the departures of the Necoclí boats to Capurganá, the last point before the migrants ventured through the Darien jungle, bordering Panama. The authorities also believe that the increase in the migratory flow is due to border roadblocks and quarantines in several countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which delayed the departure of many of these people.

Months ago, the average flow was up to 400 migrants two or three days a week, but for three weeks, the boats (with a capacity of 50 to 60 passengers) have more than doubled the weekly number.

The border between Panama and Colombia, both through the dangerous Darien jungle and by sea, is crossed by thousands of undocumented migrants from various countries around the world. Illegal boats are frequently intercepted in the Gulf of Urabá as a result of operations against illegal traffic coordinated by several countries.

But many of these vessels manage to evade military controls, as some Cubans stranded for weeks in Necoclí told 14ymedio during the previous crisis in January and February. According to their reports, the government boats, which provide transportation service in the area, charged 65 dollars per person, while the coyotes asked 400.

This journey is very dangerous and some lose their lives along the way, such as Cubans Edelvis Martínez Aguilar and Dunieski Eliades Lastre Sedeño, who in 2016 hired two Colombian boatmen to take them to Panama. The traffickers sexually assaulted Martínez, and then murdered both her and Lastre by slitting their throats. The Colombians were extradited to the United States and sentenced to 45 and 50 years in prison for murder and human trafficking.

Translated by Tomás A.

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The Work of Cuban Doctors in Mexico City was ‘Voluntary’ Say Local Authorities

The bringing in of Cuba’s Henry Reeve brigades by Mexico has been characterized by controversy and opacity. (EFE)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 5 July 2021 — An audit of the Secretariat of Health of Mexico City revealed that the payment to the first brigade of Cuban doctors that worked in the Mexican capital, between April and July of last year, went directly to the Cuban Government because the work of the health professionals was “voluntary”, that is the doctors were not paid for their work.

The report, presented to the local Congress, specifies that the government of Mexico City gave Havana 135,875,081 Mexican pesos (more than seven million dollars), “not counting accommodation and food expenses.” The health secretary of the capital, Oliva López Arellano, clarified “that the payment was only between governments, since the work of Cuban doctors was voluntary,” the Political Expansion platform published last Friday.

In the review of the Expenditure Budget, it was highlighted that the largest expenditure was in urgent care, “as well as in the acquisition of materials, supplies, general services, donations and transfers abroad due to the support received from Cuba.” continue reading

Previously, López Arellano had defended the presence of Cuban health personnel: “It is voluntary work, they have already come at other times such as the September 2017 earthquake. There is recognition of these brigades of health personnel in the world that will contribute to confronting epidemics and critical situations in the countries,” reported Political Animal.

The official was approached because international organizations, including the United Nations, indicated that the work carried out by Cuban doctors abroad could constitute forced labor. However, López Arellano stressed that the task they were carrying out in Mexico City was “voluntary” and “professional” work.

In mid-March it was learned that the total payment for the island’s medical service was 150,759,867 Mexican pesos (almost eight million dollars). The information was provided to the Mexican digital medium La Silla Rota through a request to the transparency portal InfoCDMX — to which public institutions are, in principle, obliged to respond by law — and after a half-year wait (they started the request on September 8, they say).

According to that media, the figures that the government of the Mexican capital initially gave did not include accommodation or food for the Cubans, which also came from Mexico: 14,884,785 pesos (about 744,000 dollars).

It is not the only data incongruity presented by the hiring of the Cuban medical missions to Mexico. The latest figures made public only refer to 585 health workers who served in the capital, not to the almost 200 more who were stationed in Veracruz on the same dates; nothing is known about the expenditure for those Cubans healthcare professionals.

Nor is it known how much the Government of Mexico has paid for the 500 doctors who arrived last December and returned to the island in various groups between March and May of this year. According to Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, sent to the Mexican capital in that group, when the fatality in the institutions in which they worked — almost all of them military — arrived it was 27%. “With the hard work of our collaborators, it was possible to reduce fatality to 9.7% at the end of four months,” he said when returning to the island, without providing any documentation to support his claims.

The importation of Henry Reeve brigades by Mexico has been characterized by controversy and opacity. Last June, a dozen Mexican medical associations published a letter addressed to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in which they protested the hiring of Cubans, which they considered “a serious offense against health professionals.” In addition, an investigation carried out by the Latinus portal revealed that Cuban health workers worked undocumented.

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Almost 11,000 Cubans Have Accessed Mexican Migration Offices Since January

Cuba ranked fifth out of 169 countries registered, after Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia and the United States. (INM)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 24 June 2021 — Between January of this year and to date in June, a total of 10,995 Cubans have gone to the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico to process the paperwork for their legal stay in the country or to renew their residency.

Cuba ranked fifth among the 169 registered countries, after Venezuela (17,330), Honduras (13,555), Colombia (13,101) and the United States (11,314), the INM said in a statement . Most of the procedures were processed in Mexico City, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Nuevo León, Jalisco and Baja California.

The figures have been provided thanks to the New Migration Procedures Management Model, “which contemplates the use of biometric data” and other technological changes that have reduced “from 20 days to a period of no more than 24 hours the resolution of 19 of the main immigration procedures of the institution.” continue reading

Among the main requests made by migrants, in addition to renewal of the resident card, are the regularization of the migratory situation for humanitarian reasons, issuance of migratory documents, changes from temporary to permanent resident status and notification of change of domicile.

In just the first five months of this year, according to the most recent data from the National Refugee Commission (Comar), 3,769 Cubans requested asylum in the country. Although not all those who initiate this process go to an INM office to apply for a visa for humanitarian reasons, and at least 1,444 nationals of the Island were recognized as refugees in that period.

Many Cubans who arrive in the city of Tapachula, on the southern Mexican border, request refuge at the Comar office. When they obtain the first documents which they must bring to the Migration offices to manage their humanitarian visa, they prefer to continue traveling to the north of the country to cross to US soil and request asylum.

In the last six months of last year, when the new INM procedure model began to be implemented, the 8,258 Cubans who went to the offices were only surpassed by 14,344 beneficiaries from Venezuela and 9,472 from Colombia.

This Wednesday, Mexico deported 89 Cubans (20 women and 69 men) to the island, who “did not prove their regular” status in the country, the INM reported. The migrants were detained in the states of Chiapas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Yucatán.

The deportation of the new group of Cubans coincides with a virtual meeting on Migratory and Consular Affairs held between the two countries on June 17, where they reviewed “cooperation actions to combat human trafficking and illegal trafficking of travelers,” according to a communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Island.

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‘All-Included’ Deals at Cuban Hotels Do Not Apply to Domestic Tourism

Dozens of customers wait in long lines at the Cubatur office located on the ground floor of the Habana Libre hotel. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Lorey Saman, Havana/Mexico City, 20 May 2021. Since 7 am, dozens of customers have been lining up for more than two hours at the Cubatur office on the ground floor of the Habana Libre hotel to get in on a summer getaway deal advertised by the state-run agencies. Faced with the downturn in international tourism, the government has bet on Cuban nationals to fill its hotels.

“People come here with gigantic bundles of money, like this one young guy who just took out his wallet…it’s tremendous!” exclaims a smiling woman, who on Thursday morning made it over to the central office of Cubatur in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood.

Indeed, one needs a good sum of cash to pay for these “all-included” hotel packages — among the offers that most attract Cubans’ attention. Prices range from 984 pesos ($40 USD in exchange) per person, per night — not counting transportation, which is paid separately and generally comes out to about 600 pesos. continue reading

“The more economical offers are sold out, leaving the most expensive ones,” asserts another customer who, after checking with the tour operators, decided to get in line. “The minimum reservation one can make is for two days, with a money-back guarantee should the offer be cancelled due to the pandemic.”

The agency announced that the Islazul hotel chain prices were going down, therefore “they removed the signs outside that listed the costs,” according to customers who had arrived quite early.

The tourism packages can only be reserved in pesos, at the state-run offices within the country. No option to purchase from abroad exists should a relative or friend wish to gift a vacation to a resident of the Island.

The package prices run from 984 pesos to more than 3,000 per person, per night. (14ymedio)

“Somebody who goes to these things a lot told me that right now those hotels are like voluntary work camps — I don’t know how true that is, we’ll have to wait and hear what people have to say when they come back,” suggests another customer.

Along with the pool and the beach, the principal attraction of stay at the country’s hotels continues being access to a more varied menu than can be found in private homes, which are very affected by food shortages. Even so, various reports gathered by this newspaper warn of stricter regulations governing these “all-included” packages.

“They’re only allowing one heavy meal at lunch and dinner, while only a part of breakfast is included as a buffet item — the rest has to be ordered à la carte, such as cheese, egg dishes, sausages, and yogurt,” shared a Matanzas resident, speaking with 14ymedio after purchasing two nights at a Gaviota hotel in Varadero.

The woman, who claims to take such a trip annually (“except for 2020, because of the pandemic”), says that the hotel guests “act crazy” in the dining room. “When the servers bring out beer, the people stampede to get in line like they do at stores.” In her view, the food shortages affecting the country are evident “because the menu offerings are more limited and the amounts are smaller.” In any case, she observes, the getaway is still “enjoyable after so many months of being cooped up.”

In other parts of the country, such as Matanzas, since early May only residents of that province have been allowed to purchase packages for various hotels in Varadero*. At that tourist hub, the Island currently welcomes thousands of Russian vacationers, thanks to connections re-established in mid-April between Russia and Cuba, including seven weekly flights.

Meanwhile, some Matanzas businesses have offered discounts to Cuban customers who book before 31 May. Similar offers are available from Havanatur in Holguín, with a 10% discount for the Playa Costa Verde hotel, if the package is purchased by 30 June for stays between 1 July and 15 September.

In Mexico, the Vagamundos agency, which works with the Viva Aerobus airline, as of 7 May began promoting tourism packages to Varadero. A few hotels included in this promotion are also ones in the summer domestic tourism campaigns in Cuba, such as Kawama, Villa Tortuga, and Los Delfines.

Although no specific departure city is identified, tourists could book between four and six nights between 1 June and 31 December, 2021. Rates for four nights run from 784 to 1,186 dollars, with Tuesday and Saturday departures.

The packages include proof of Covid-19 vaccination three days prior to departure from Mexico, a health-check fee, ground transportation to the hotel, and travel insurance. The packages are available to “tourists or Cuban residents of other countries, and they may not depart from the tourist hub,” according to the agency. In addition, “family members will be allowed in the hotel as of the second day” as long as they show proof of a prior negative Covid-19 test and have booked their stay in advance.

In early March, Taíno Tours — a subsidiary of Havanatur — also offered tours departing from Mexico of between 200 and 400 dollars per week at Varadero hotels. These are “therapeutic” packages designed to “prevent diseases and health problems,” with treatments that include Interferon, PrevenHo-Vir, and Biomodulin-T — pharmaceutical products promoted by the Cuban authorities since the start of the pandemic to prevent coronavirus and other infections. However, according to independent analyses, these products have no proven scientific consistency.

*Translator’s Note: Varadero is in Matanzas province.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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Some 40 Mexican Doctors Who Don’t Want to Go to Cuba Request Protection Under a Writ of Amparo

Some of the doctors who filed for a writ of amparo—a protection order—protested on February 9 in the Zócalo of Mexico City against being forced to go to Cuba. (Excelsior)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, February 18, 2021 — Around 40 Mexican doctors have come together to file amparo lawsuits for protection from being forced to study their specialty in Cuba by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The writ of amparo—a legal instrument that exists in Mexico to protect citizens from possible arbitrariness by the State—is based on alleged violations in the selection process, which they agreed to after passing the National Examination of Applicants for Medical Residency (ENARM) last November.

“In Mexico, any act of authority must be duly founded and motivated, and if it had been established in the call for applicants that the only place of destination was Cuba, there would be no problem,” the lawyer Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, representing to the plaintiffs in Mexico City, explains to 14ymedio. “The point is that the doctors took the exam, but they weren’t told that it was to study in only one country.” continue reading

López Obrador announced in May last year that they would create a program of specialty scholarships abroad for doctors due to the lack of places in Mexico. In November, the health authorities reported not only the doubling of places but also the launch of up to 1,600 scholarships abroad, destined for Canada, the United States, Argentina, Cuba and Australia, under the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT).

It should be noted that in these countries, access to medical residency for foreigners involves strict immigration requirements as well as qualification by a demanding specialty exam, something which the Mexican Government did not mention at any time when announcing the creation of the scholarships.

When CONACYT published the requirements to fill 1,000 places with scholarships on December 15, the students who had already received their ENARM diplomas discovered that the only destination available to them was Cuba.

The Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell— the visible face of the Government during the Covid pandemic—told the protesters that they “are free” to not go to the Island, but in this case they will have to repeat the exam in the next call.

In this regard, the lawyer recalled that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ensures the rights of people during the pandemic, and that the document asks governments and their leaders to be ethical and clear in their pronouncements. The official’s position, Rodríguez says, was added as evidence in the last lawsuit.

“There were only four locations authorized in Mexico where you could take the exam, and doctors from all over the Republic had to travel to these places. Many of them had to borrow money to do so. They didn’t know that they would have only one option for being placed, and this is something that López-Gatell didn’t consider. He is not taking into account the effort put in by the doctors who participated and won a place in the quota,” the lawyer points out.

“The rules weren’t clear, which is either an inconvenient mistake or a purposeful violation, and that is what we are contesting by way of a writ of amparo,” insists Rodríguez, a member of the Lex Artis Medica, a medical law group.

“Changing these circumstances is detrimental to the rights of resident doctors, who have earned a place in Mexico’s academic system,” he explains. “We want the judge to order the authority to respect the doctors’ rights, since they passed the exam.”

According to the lawyer, the doctors are aware that the Mexican health system can’t take on so many residents, and in the event that the State alleges that there are no places to send applicants, the lawsuit also requests that the quota they’ve already obtained serve them for the following year.

“This is not a problem generated by the doctors; it’s a problem that the State itself created by increasing the number of places, and by the Mexican health system for not having the capacity to accept them,” he asserts.

The lawyer also considers it extremely serious that the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company prohibits postgraduate studies for HIV carriers and pregnant women. “The State should put an end to these discriminatory barriers and gender-based violence and it hasn’t done so, nor has it issued one single statement of agreement to improve these circumstances,” Rodríguez denounces. “In no way are we asking the Court to issue a recommendation to another country, but it can tell the Government to revise those parts of the agreement between Mexico and Cuba.”

The process began with the lawsuit filed last January by 12 doctors, which was joined at the beginning of February by another group. Little by little, Rodríguez assures, more doctors are being added: “They can either lose their place and retake the exam or join the lawsuit.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the process due to the suspension of activities in the courts, but this week the doctors were informed that the lawsuits are already being reviewed. “At any moment we will have a resolution; either they will support the claims or they will ask us to clarify some point for the judge; in the worst case, they will dismiss the lawsuits.”

In March the doctors are supposed to begin residency in their specialties, but the processing of the protection orders could postpone their studies.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hope Reborn for Cubans at Southern U.S. Border

Cuban migrants in Ciudad Juarez, after finally deciding to stay and work in Mexico. (EFE/Capture)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 12 February 2021 — The announcement by Joe Biden’s administration to reopen the cases of asylum seekers who were sent back to Mexico, as of Feb. 19, has renewed hope for many Cubans who remain at the southern U.S. border in the expectation of being able to access an immigration court.

“In almost two years, it’s the only positive news we’ve had,” Luis Hechavarría, who is stuck in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, tells 14ymedio. “In the Trump era all the news was negative; all the executive orders that came out were to make the process difficult for us and to leave us here in Mexico, but now a new path is opening up for us.”

Hechavarría does not stop harboring some doubts and recalls that there is a lot of desperation among Cubans since last January. “They have wanted to force their way to U.S. soil and that’s no good. Violating the national security of a country like the United States is a serious crime and I don’t want to add federal charges against myself.” continue reading

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that it will reopen asylum cases as part of a program “to restore the safe and orderly processing” of immigrants who remain at the southern border under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) known as Permanezca en México, established through an agreement between Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The DHS estimates that some 25,000 people have active cases, as is the case with Hechavarría, who has only been able to attend court once. “I have known people who have had to attend up to four times, it is unfortunate and very stressful this situation.”

“Many of these people prefer not to show up at the border again so as not to be deported,” he says. Many like him cannot afford legal counsel, nor do they have sufficient knowledge to defend their cases. Hiring an immigration lawyer, he says, costs between $6,000 and $8,000 and “that service does not guarantee you a favorable resolution.”

Since the pandemic arrived in the United States, the courts have suspended their hearings on several occasions. “They haven’t worked for months and the new administration suspended them altogether.”

Faced with this panorama and the uncertainty of being deported to the Island, some Cubans along the border have decided not to appear before an immigration judge and have opted to apply for residency in Mexico, says the man, who is originally from Holguín (Cuba).

The violence and social insecurity on the Mexican side keeps Hechavarría on alert because of the large number of murders, but he admits that the people have been very welcoming to the Cubans. “We behave well and just work. If we were misbehaving there would be more deaths, but since I’ve been here I’ve only heard of two murders in our community.”

Hechavarria, who has been working in a restaurant for a year and a half, left Cuba for Guyana in 2018. “I have a daughter and I saw myself at 27 years old and with nothing in my hands, with no future to give her. In me, the pain of that last hug and that last kiss always remains,” he says. “But well, you know, one must be made of stone.”

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Mexican Doctors Rebel Against Being Required to Study in Cuba

Mexican doctors protested this Monday in Mexico City’s Zocolo plaza.

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 9 February 2021 — A score of doctors demonstrated Monday in Mexico City’s Zocalo plaza in protest against Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government requiring them to study their specialty in Cuba.

“They say that the infrastructure there is greater than what we have in Mexico, but here we have more hospitals and there is a greater need for specialist doctors,” declared Ingrid Izar Cuéllar to the local media; Dr. Izar was one of the doctors who protested this Monday in front of the Palacio Nacional, the seat of the Mexican Executive and also, since he took office two years ago, the residence of López Obrador.

The Mexican president had announced in May of last year that they would start a program of scholarships for doctors to live abroad, due to the lack of vacancies in the country. Months later, in November, the health authorities reported not only the doubling of positions but also the launching of up to 1,600 scholarships abroad, with destinations in Canada, the United States, Argentina, Cuba and Australia.

In fact, when doctors took their specialty exams, they were asked if they wanted to go abroad and which country they preferred. continue reading

However, when the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) published the call for the scholarships last December 15, they were only for Cuba. On that occasion, health consultant Xavier Tello noted that Mexico would pay the Cuban government a total of 40 million dollars as “tuition” for this program.

Those aspiring to residencies were up in arms, because it was not even optional: if they did not accept the place on the Island, they would lose it, and their exam results would not be considered.

“It is unfortunate for the aspirations and dreams of doctors who yearn to do a specialty outside the country, that they are not given the opportunity to do it in the place they prefer,” Belinda Cázares Gómez, president of the Mexican Medical Association, told 14ymedio. “It is frustrating, moreover, that if they do not accept studying in Cuba, they will lose their exam passing grade and their efforts will not be recognized.” And she adds: “I don’t think they were even warned.”

“Because of the conditions associated with the pandemic, doctors prefer to stay in their own country and not go out to take risks,” says Dr. Cázares.

Along the same lines, Dr. Izar told Imagen Radio: “We are in the middle of the pandemic and we demand a position here because our selection certificate is about to expire in two weeks.”

Those, like Izar, who passed the National Medical Residency Examination last November, must begin their residency on March 1, but those who chose to go abroad, in this case Cuba, must apply for the Conacyt scholarship before February 12.

“For Rehabilitation Medicine, 449 applicants were selected, of which only 149 obtained a national position,” said Izar. The remaining 300 have to go to Cuba, “obviously doing all the paperwork, which costs between 15,000 and 20,000 pesos, at our own expense,” not to mention “nor are you assured of acceptance.”

With the 1,100 dollars that Conacyt will pay each month for each scholarship holder who goes to Cuba, Izar reflected, two doctors could do their specialty in Mexico, since what is paid to residents in national territory is half the cost. “That is why we think that those economic resources should be redirected to our country and not to Cuba, because we do not know what study plans they manage, what hospitals they offer, we know nothing, everything is phantasmal.”

Dr. Belinda Cázares adds in an interview with 14ymedio: “The doctor who wants to do a specialty wants to have the certainty that his studies have the right academic conditions, that they are what he aspires to, that within the Cuban academic infrastructure he can know which are the study programs and the hospitals where he will work and what opportunity he will have here to occupy a position as a trained specialist once he finishes his specialty” in Cuba.

The president of the Medical Association sees it as positive that other countries receive Mexicans to study specialties and carry out scientific exchanges, but she asks: “What guarantee will these doctors who will go to Cuba to do a specialty have of obtaining a professional license to be able to practice when they return to the country?”

Cázares says he has “very certain information” that there are medical degree students graduated in Cuba but who were later not granted professional licenses in Mexico by the Mexican General Directorate of Professions “because the Cuban academic programs are not compatible with the Mexican ones.”

The issue of forced specialties in Cuba is a new episode that divides the healthcare profession and the president with regards to the Island. The College presided over by Cázares was, precisely, one of the signatories of the letter addressed to López Obrador last June in protest against the hiring of Cuban doctors to work in Mexico.

“We first asked why we as a guild had not been informed”, says Cázares, “what were the specialties of the Cuban doctors who were coming to the country because of the pandemic.” On that occasion, the schools heard “many concerns from the healthcare personnel… They didn’t know if they were doctors, intensive care or emergency physicians, nurses, we didn’t know their academic quality,” he says. “The authorities were very secretive, even the Cubans didn’t talk much.”

Another complaint of the doctors was that they did not even enter the spaces where the COVID patients were being treated. “Did they come to support us?” Cázares asks doubtfully. “The Secretary of Health of Mexico City [Oliva López] answered us that they were observers, epidemiologists, who came to do work of that nature.” Thus, denounces the doctor, “there was a double discourse: did they come as support for the pandemic or to be observers?”

The more than 700 Cuban Brigadists were in Mexican territory during the first wave of the pandemic, distributed between Mexico City and Veracruz returned to Cuba last October. The National Welfare Institute paid the regime more than 6 million dollars for their services, although the contract between the two parties was never made public.

Despite the uproar, Lopez Obrador “imported” again, two months later, a brigade of 500 healthcare workers, joined by a new contingent of 200 last January. Unlike those who worked during the first wave of the pandemic, stationed in civilian hospitals, this time they are in military hospitals, “attending” with the help of the Navy and the Armed Forces, as the Mexican president himself said and a medical source confirmed to 14ymedio, which makes the information about them, if that were possible, even more opaque.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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No News of 22 Rafters Who Left Cuba’s Isle of Youth in November

Fabio González, the son of Yanet Paz, was one of the three underage youth traveling by boat. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, February 8, 2021 — The families of a group of 22 Cubans who have disappeared in the Gulf of Mexico since November 29 are desperate. The migrants, three habaneros and 19 piñeros, including three minors, left the Isle of Youth for Cancun, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, but it’s not known if they reached their destination.

Family members of the rafters filed complaints in several Mexican cities, including Chetumal, Cancún and Islas Mujeres, without obtaining a response from the authorities.

Yanet Paz, mother of one of the minors who was on the boat, tells 14ymedio that two lawyers have also presented the case before the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico. Along with the Cubans, Paz says, the three Mexican boatmen they were traveling with are missing. continue reading

The boat left Mexico for the Isle of Youth to pick up the Cubans and return to its starting point. The last they heard about the rafters, from the call to a relative, is that they were near the Mexican coast. “One of the boatmen said that they had run out of fuel and were being towed by another boat. Since then nothing else has been known,” says Paz.

Her son, Fabio Francisco Paz González, is only 16 years old, and although it’s been more than two months, she says that she still has faith and hopes that he will appear along with the other migrants. His goal was to get to the U.S., where she is living.

“No, I didn’t know anything about that trip; my boy didn’t tell me. Three days after leaving Cuba, I found out that he had left in a boat. Since then I’ve searched for him everywhere.”

The 421 kilometers that separate the Isle of Youth from Cancun are one of the most common routes for Cubans trying to escape their country. Another of the most frequent points that serves as a port of departure is the province of Pinar del Río, just under 200 kilometers from the Mexican coast.

According to data published by the Mexican press, between 2014 and 2017, 393 Cubans were rescued on the high seas when they were seen by cruise ships, cargo ships or tourists, who reported them to the Mexican Navy. The average number of people per boat ranges from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 18.

On November 28, 14 Cubans were rescued by personnel from the Secretariat of the Mexican Navy when they were navigating in the vicinity of Isla Mujeres. The rafters had been on the high seas for more than five days and had intended to reach the coast of Honduras.

In addition, Cubans try to enter the U.S. through South Florida. On January 1, the Miami Border Patrol detained 12 rafters in Key West, the first in 2021 to reach land in a homemade boat.

In 2017, the Obama Administration eliminated the wet foot/dry foot policy that benefited Cubans who stepped onto U.S. territory. However, dozens of the island’s residents continue to jump into the sea in precarious boats to escape a life without a future in their own country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Stuck in Colombia Want a “Humanitarian Bridge” to Panama

“Many illegal boats have been leaving, but we don’t have the money to pay for them, so we had to remain on the beach,” says a Cuban migrant in Colombia, waiting to get to Panama.

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Havana, February 4, 2021 — More than a thousand migrants trapped in Necoclí, Colombia, are staying in tents and experiencing hunger and disease due to poor sanitary conditions. On Thursday, a first group managed to leave on a boat for the Panamanian border. When they get to Capurganá, they will try to enlist the support of local authorities to create a “humanitarian bridge” that will allow them to reach Panama, the neighboring country, without having to cross the inhospitable Darien jungle on foot.

“Many illegal boats have been leaving,” Emanuel Novoa, “but we don’t have the money to pay for them, so we had to remain on the beach.” Novoa is a habanero who came from Uruguay to this border point in the Colombian department of Antioquia. He shares a destiny with dozens of Cubans (23, according to official sources, although it’s said in the town that there are actually a lot more).

He was lucky on Thursday, Novoa tells 14ymedio, since he was finally able to get on a boat that will take him to the Panamanian border for 65 dollars, instead of the 400 that the coyotes are charging. From the tourist town of Capurganá, a few hours away, he’ll be just 45 minutes by boat from the Panamanian port of Puerto Obaldia. However, crossing the border could be complicated. continue reading

Because of the pandemic, the border between Colombia and Panama was closed on January 15. Hundreds of migrants remained in Necoclí, most of them from Haiti, Cuba and Africa. The growing makeshift camp has alarmed the authorities, and they’re finally making decisions in order to prevent what could be a serious source of COVID contagion.

“It wasn’t until the arrival of the press here in Necoclí that things began to change, especially because of the Telemundo correspondent,” confesses Novoa, who is just 26 years old. “Only then did we see a light at the end of the tunnel regarding the sale of tickets by the government company that is transferring tourists to the other side of the Gulf of Urabá.”

On Tuesday, the Colombian authorities, in coordination with Panama, began to sell tickets, and the legal transit of migrants in boats is scheduled to begin on Thursday.

Daniel Muñoz, the Telemundo reporter who “worked the miracle,” tells 14ymedio about the suffering the migrants have endured. “They’ve spent this time sleeping in crowded tents or outdoors, without water or food for the children. Older people have had diarrhea and vomiting.”

According to the journalist, most have survived through the help of nearby residents. “To cook they gather wood, pieces of trees, papers or garbage. They prepare what the villagers give them, such as ripe and green bananas or used oil, which is a blessing, because the migrants can at least fry an egg,” adds Muñoz.

Necoclí has registered a low level of Covid-19 infections, the reporter explains, but the situation in the settlement is extreme, because, among other factors, the municipality doesn’t have drinking water. “Imagine how easily the virus can be transmitted in this place, when nobody uses a mask and you can’t wash your hands or use any gel.”

The migrants harbor the hope that, due to the pandemic, Colombia and Panama will create a humanitarian bridge, as several legislators have requested, but the authorities haven’t declared anything yet, and this is something that has never happened before.

However, Novoa insists: “The authorities explained to us that we won’t travel through the different camps in Darien. They will take us to a Panamanian city so we don’t have any contact with the residents.”

According to his version, Cuban migrants would be transferred first to Capurganá (in Chocó, Colombia) and from there to other points, “always with the advice and guidance of the Colombian government, which will support us along the way and receive us at each site.”

Novoa was a teacher in Cuba, where he was in the third year of Special Education at the Enrique José Varona Higher Pedagogical Institute, but on January 31, 2020, he decided to leave the island to improve his future. “I got to Suriname and wanted to stay there, but I realized that there was a lot of unemployment in that country and a very low standard of living.”

That took him to Uruguay, his second stop. “I had to go through Guyana and Brazil and ran into very corrupt policemen along the way,” says the young man, who was even swindled by a Cuban posing as a coyote. “When I reached Brazil, with the help of Venezuelan friends I met, I got to Uruguay and spent ten months there.”

His goal, in any case, was to go to the U.S., and he left on December 15 after collecting some money and organizing a caravan with 14 other compatriots. The group followed trails and avoided migratory checkpoints in Brazil, Peru and Ecuador until they reached Ipiales, in southern Colombia. From there, negotiating with “corrupt policemen,” he continued by bus through Cali and Medellín, until he reached Necoclí.

In the makeshift camp of people, there are also pregnant women and small children. Surayma Bosque, one of the members of the group encouraged by Novoa, traveled with her husband and two children, ages 3 and 6.

“I left Cuba due to the lack of opportunities, the economic situation and the repression, but above all to find a better future and freedom,” says Bosque. In Uruguay, where they couldn’t find work, they didn’t do well and embarked on this adventure, which has stopped for the moment.

“It’s a sacrifice for my children and for me, but I think it will be worth it to reach our destination and be able to offer them a better future. That’s why all we Cubans are struggling to get to the U.S.,” she says with certainty.

The 33-year-old habanera knows that she has embarked on a “long journey where many things can happen,” but she is convinced of something: “If I can’t enter the U.S., I will stay in Mexico. Returning to Cuba is not an option for me, and I have faith that we will achieve our goal.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans and Other Migrants in a Critical Situation at the Frontier of Colombia and Panama

Migrants at an improvised camp on the shore of the beach. (Semana)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 29 January 2021 — More than 100 Cubans have been stranded for 23 days in the Colombian border municipality of Necoclí, in the department of Antioquia, along with hundreds of Haitians, Venezuelans and other migrants. They are waiting to be transported by boat to a point in Panama in order to continue on to the United States.

The Colombian government announced on January 15 that it was extending the closure of land and river borders until March 1. The director of Migration Colombia, Francisco Espinosa, reported that due to the increase of cases and the worrying hospital situation, due to the high occupation of COVID-19 patients, the passage between Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela was suspended.

According to Wilson Patiño, director of Migration in Antioquia, “it is not a time to travel”, but “to protect ourselves, in order to minimize the risks of COVID-19 infection”. continue reading

Necoclí has become a place with no way out for the migrants: “Every day more and more Cubans continue to arrive, becoming completely trapped in a nightmare”, describes Telemundo’s correspondent, from a makeshift camp where migrants, including small children and pregnant women, find themselves

“What prevents us from leaving is the sea, and I have a son with diarrhea and vomiting,” Cuban Odalys Trobajo, says with impotence, having been stuck halfway after Colombian authorities closed the border because of the pandemic, she tells the news channel.

In the last year, given the restrictions on mobility and quarantine due to COVID, as reported by the Colombian magazine Semana, the passage of migrants has decreased in that region. However, at the beginning of the year, the movement of travelers returned in “Necoclí, the next-to-last step before crossing the Gulf of Urabá and venturing on a path of death through the Darién Gap”, the article states.

First, travelers must reach Capurganá in order to board a boat that will take them to a point in Panamanian territory. “They don’t sell us a ticket because the borders are supposedly closed to us, the migrants, and the illegal boats are leaving,” Ailen Campos, another Cuban, tells Noticias Caracol.

Cuban Jany Perez tells Telemundo: “We are afraid to cross in the illegal boats, because when they arrive they throw you in the water and we don’t want to go through that moment”.

Father Aurelio Moncada, parish priest in a settlement near Capurganá, affirms that the number of migrants arriving in the area continues to rise, too much “for the coyotes (traffickers)”, reports the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. “Since October they have been smuggling them at night”, adds the priest.

For his part, the mayor of Necocli, Jorge Tobón, denounces the critical situation of migrants: “They are taking care of their ’necessities’ on the beaches, that is why we have decreed a health emergency and a humanitarian emergency”.

“I call on the national and departmental government to help us, because the truth is that we are overwhelmed,” insists the mayor. “I hope they help us, many of these migrants are already enduring hunger today. The children are sick too. Migration Colombia should also support us with these people.”

Data published by the International Organization for Migration, collected by El Espectador, point to the increase in the transit of migrants between Colombia and Panama: whereas in 2006 only 79 people crossed the Darien Gap, in 2012 the number rose to 1,777.

By 2015 there were already 29,289 migrants and a year later there were 30,055, “mostly Cubans hoping to quickly to reach the US” in view of the possibility, implemented by Barack Obama in January 2017, of the elimination of the wet foot/dry foot policy, which allowed Cubans who “touched land” in the United States to be on a path to citizenship.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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For Melissa Barreto Galvez, a Cuban from Santa Clara, the Trip Ended in Mexico

For Melissa Barreto Gálvez, a Cuban from Santa Clara, the trip ended in Mexico (Cortesía)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 17 January 2021 — When Melissa Barreto Gálvez boarded the plane in Havana that would take her to Nicaragua, the only thing on her mind was her three-year-old son Mylan Kahled. She left him behind, under Grandma’s care, but he was her driving engine to make the big leap and become an immigrant.

“Leaving my little one in Cuba, whom I love most in life, causes me pain that grows stronger every day, which leaves me hardly able to breathe. It’s as if the world is going to fall on you,” this 22-year-old resident of Santa Clara said moving to 14ymedio.

Melissa is one of thousands of Cubans who in 2020 chose to petition for refuge in Mexico. This process has been triggered in the last four years among the nationals of the island, who have ranked as the third highest of nationalities that requests it, behind Hondurans and Haitians. continue reading

Here she arrived last July, in the midst of the health crisis across the region, dodging obstacles, corrupt cops, dealing with scammers, and some fears. “I left Cuba with other people. When I arrived in Nicaragua, blind, I got my rent by myself and a way to sustain myself,” recalls the young woman, who left in the middle of her medical career in Cuba to seek a better future.

“Since every Cuban is known by our accent and even the way we dress, on my way out of work I met two Cubans. We started sharing and struck up a great friendship.” Like her, the boys also wanted to jump the borders into Mexico, and that’s what they did together.

Melissa and her friends were set up to a contact with coyotes. Within a few days, they had set out on the road. The $1,200 of the initial fare for the trip ended up at $3,500. “I spent some very difficult days, because in the end coyotes took money from us whenever they could. They left us 15 days in a house, almost without food because, according to them, the passage was difficult, but they did it all in order to ask us for more money. Most people arrive in Chiapas [Mexico] in four or five days, I spent 26 days and they were the worst.”

The young woman, who never gave up hope of arriving in Mexico, says she felt a lot of distrust at first “because of the things she heard” about the journey. “But along the way I was losing my fear, because I also knew my friends wouldn’t abandon me.”

The day after she stepped on Mexican soil, on July 12, she showed up at the Office of the Refugee Aid Commission (COMAR). “I did it all very quickly and easily, there were no queues. In those months almost no one was entering the country, mainly because Honduras and Guatemala had their borders closed because of COVID.”

“The third month after I went to the COMAR, I was called to interview for the asylum process. Within a few days I was told to go and pick up the resolution that recognized me as a refugee in the United Mexican States.” She is already in the process of obtaining permanent residency.

The migration landscape in Mexico for Cubans has changed a lot in a few years here. The usual, before, was the immediate deportation of the nationals from the island, a procedure interrupted for a few months, just over five years ago, when, faced with the imminent elimination by the Obama administration of the wet foot/dry foot policy, there was an avalanche of Cubans who entered the Chiapas border with the intention of reaching the United States by land. They then received an expedited “letter of exit” from the Instituto Nacional de Migración (Mexican National Institute of Migration), which allowed them to remain in the country legally for 15 days, until they reached the northern border.

Melissa now lives in Monterrey. She went a few days without a job, but she then was able to find one in order to move ahead. She claims that the important thing is to work, and she has lived it from the south to the north of the country, within a Cuban community that grows every day. And she also found love in another Cuban, a man who is young like her, who also wants to “throw in” (echar pa’ lante = work hard to get ahead), she says.

If everything becomes better on the northern border, does she plan to apply for asylum in the United States? “My son is not here with me and I have no plans to go to the USA yet. Maybe tomorrow, when I have my son, I will be able to tell you, but the truth is, I want to be here, in the beautiful country that has welcomed me.”

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Cuban and Central American Migrants Clash on Mexico’s Southern Border

Between January and November 2020, 4,893 Cubans had requested asylum in Mexico, according to data published by the Comar. (News from Chiapas)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 7 January 2021 — A group of Cubans stranded in Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, got into a fight this Tuesday in front of the main entrance of the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM), when they tried complete the paperwork for a humanitarian visa that allows them enter the country legally and continue their journey to the northern border to request asylum in the United States.

According to an account published in Chiapas News, the confrontation, which involved more than 1,000 Central American and Cuban migrants, began with angry shouts of “they do not want to respect the line, back, back, respect the line.”

The newspaper details that there was an exchange of “bumps and scratches” during the discussion to obtain a position in line. Many migrants who had started their paperwork on December 23 had to wait until this week to complete it because the offices closed for several days.

Fidel Hernández, a Salvadoran who was standing in line, pointed out that the Cubans had drawn up a long list of hundreds of them and that they were not allowing Central Americans to enter. He said that in the confrontation there were several injured and that the Cubans also hit each other.

A week earlier, Chiapas News reported that around 400 migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Cuba remained at the 21st Century Migration Station in Tapachula without optimal sanitary conditions due to the pandemic.

When people who are detained in the federal station can leave, they request refugee status before the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar). The process allows them to legally stay for 45 days in the city and in that time they can appeal to the Mexican immigration authorities far a humanitarian visa.

Cubans continue to enter Mexico from the south despite the closing of the borders of the Central American countries due to the pandemic. Between January and November 2020, 4,893 had requested asylum, according to data published by Comar. The island is surpassed only by Honduras with 13,404 applicants and by the 5,314 people from Haiti. In that period, only 670 Cubans successfully achieved recognition as refugees.

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