The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) of Mexico issued this Wednesday a recommendation for the illegal detention in October 2022 of two Cuban migrants, mother and son, despite having documents that guaranteed their regular stay in the country.
The National Migration Institute (INM) “has established a perverse game” against Cubans, tells 14 intervene the lawyer José Luis Pérez. “On the one hand, Immigration granted safe passage to these people in accordance with article 63 of the Regulations of the Immigration Law and, on the other, in the checkpoints or inspection filters installed on roads and airports, the agents assume that the documents that these people carry are false.” This, the lawyer explains, “is a very recurrent unconstitutional practice that violates human rights.”
The CNDH, which in accordance with article 6 of the Mexican Constitution did not give the identity of the island’s nationals, investigated and certified the participation of 11 Immigration agents in the arrest of two Cubans in the state of Querétaro who were heading to Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua) to collect the ashes of a relative who died in 2021.
The lawyer regrets that the CNDH only limits itself to recommending “the implementation of a training course” for offending agents. In this case there is talk of compensation to the Cubans, but again, “what it will consist of is not defined.” The CNDH document says that “it must be granted in an appropriate manner and proportional to the severity of the human rights violation suffered by the victims.” Unfortunately, Pérez asserts, “this will remain an ‘excuse me’.”
The lawyer regrets that the CNDH only limits itself to recommending “the implementation of a training course” for offending agents
According to the report, the woman learned in 2021 that her son had died in Mexico, so she requested help from the Cuban Embassy in Mexico to obtain a humanitarian visa that would allow her to travel to collect the ashes, but she never received a response. Faced with such a situation, in the month of October 2022, she left the Island in the company of another of her children, arriving in the North American country on October 8.
Nine days later they obtained safe-conduct passes at the Immigration offices located in Tapachula, with which they undertook the journey by land to Ciudad Juárez, but at a checkpoint located in Querétaro they were detained by agents despite showing the duly sealed safe-conduct pass. They were then transferred to the state of Oaxaca, where they were held until they were released and could collect the ashes.
Attacks on migrants are a recurring issue. Until March of this year, the CNDH registered a total of 721 files. The commission has 1,100 violating acts to which it has not yet responded, among which omissions that violate the rights of migrants and their families are noted.
Meanwhile, the caravan with more than 7,000 migrants that left Tapachula on Monday bound for the border with the United States remains in Huixtla, where a group of doctors arrived who are treating people with malnutrition, dehydration and injuries. In the feet.
Cuban Wilmer Rodríguez warned about the assaults that migrants have suffered during their short journey. “Two guys took some women’s money when they went in to shop in a store,” he told 14 intervene. “You don’t have to distance yourself from the group.”
The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Committed Against Migrants confirmed to this newspaper the complaints they have received from residents of the area. “At night they have heard the cries of migrants asking for help, so some patrols were established since Wednesday night.”
The migrants warned that if Immigration does not grant them safe passage that guarantees them free movement and not being detained and deported, they are willing to block the road. In protest at the lack of response to their demands, eight Hondurans, a Dominican woman and a Salvadoran woman sewed their lips.
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