On October 18, a federal jury in Miami convicted American Javier Hernández of the crimes of boat theft, kidnapping, extortion and torture of migrants, including several Cubans, in addition to paying bribes to authorities. The accused, who will be sentenced on January 5, was part of a criminal group known as the Cuban Mafia, which operated on the Island, Mexico and the United States.
This criminal network kidnapped Cubans in Mexico on their journey to the United States and threatened them to obtain information from relatives from whom they demanded $10,000 for their freedom. They warned them that if they did not pay they would “starve the hostages.” According to the investigation, there were Cubans who “received shocks” and were tortured by putting guns to their heads.
“If a victim’s family member could pay the ransom, the organization would release the victim and send him or her by bus to the U.S. border,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
There are constant complaints of Cubans being kidnapped in Mexico. In May of last year, Bárbara Rodríguez Téllez lived, along with her son, 26 days of captivity in the border city of Ciudad Juárez with El Paso, Texas. “Seeing that they could kill my son… They pointed a gun at me here (on my neck) and they kneeled him. If I didn’t say what they told me, they killed my son.” In her case, relatives had to pay $30,000 to be released.
Last August, the Quintana Roo Police released a group of Cubans who had been kidnapped and were being tortured so that their relatives would pay the ransom.
According to investigations into the Cuban Mafia, Hernández, 50 years old and resident of Miami Beach, was in charge of stealing boats on the west coast of Florida, which his accomplice, Ramón Reyes Aranda, indicated to him and were taken to Mexico. One of the evidence presented at the trial indicates that the accused took a vehicle to the North American country with which he “bribed” an official to allow “the smuggling of migrants without interference from the authorities.”
Hernández and Reyes were under the command of five Cubans: José Miguel González Vidal, 36 years old; Reynaldo Abreu García, 56; Yohismy Pérez González, 40 years old; Yosvani Carbonel Lemus, 43; Reynaldo Crespo Márquez, 44, and Jancer Sergio Ramos Valdés, 37. All residents of the state of Yucatán (Mexico) from where they plan boat robberies and extortion of migrants, mainly Cubans.
Another rescue by police now of some Cubans, they were deprived of their liberty and tortured by a criminal group that had them in a safe house in superblock 64, in Benito Juárez. pic.twitter.com/pvX4maZ3oE
— Quintana Roo HOY (@QuintanaRooHoy1) August 4, 2023
González Vidal was in charge of payments and the one who maintained direct contact with the Americans. In Mexico, the trafficking network hooked Mexicans Maikel Antonio Hechavarría Reyes and Mónica Susana Castillo, who benefited “from various schemes, including smuggling and extortion of Cuban migrants held hostage in Mexico for payment of smuggling fees.” said US authorities.
González Vidal, Crespo Márquez, Abreu García, Pérez González, Carbonel Lemus and Ramos Valdés previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and migrant smuggling. His sentencing hearings are scheduled for November and December in Miami. Meanwhile, Reyes Aranda, who also pleaded guilty, has a hearing date for December 15.
In February of last year, the authorities of the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo were warned by the National Migration Institute (INM) of the arrival of Cuban rafters to the Mexican Caribbean. This Wednesday a boat was abandoned on the beach known as El Secreto, in the Riviera Maya. Mexican authorities had signs of a migrant smuggling network.
In September, Javier Robles, a fisherman who rents a catamaran to tourists to practice snorkeling, told 14ymedio that coyotes had reactivated Cancún (Quintana Roo) as the escape route for Cubans.
The Cuban Graviel García told this newspaper that same month that before the pandemic “there were departures through Pinar del Río”, which is 220 miles from Cancún and 211 miles from Isla Mujeres, two of the points that use polleros and that are noted in the report Offshore: migrants and shipwrecked at sea, prepared by the United Nations. “I never contacted the coyote, I do know that they charged $7,000, a lot for that danger.”
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