Thousands of Cubans, most of them young, have arrived in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, in the last week. Among them is George who, since last Thursday, has been sleeping, along with his cousin, in a tent in the ecological park of the city on the border with Guatemala. Both trust that the headquarters of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) will grant them safe passage to continue their journey to the United States.
“In Cuba there is no future for young people,” laments this native of Las Tunas when interviewed by the journalist from América TeVé Nelson Rubio. “Things on the island are bad, everyone knows it and you have to make decisions to help your family from outside.”
The young man’s cousin, 23 years old, says that “it is a shame to see the things that exist outside of Cuba and there a child cannot eat even a lollipop.” The young woman points out that this is “the truth” of the Island and “it hurts.”
Comar officials have explained to the thousands of migrants that they “do not grant safe conduct or transit permits.” Comar official José López tells 14 intervene that in the last month, 2,730 Cubans requested refuge. “We are talking about the fact that until September 10,192 migrants from Cuba who have stated that they are victims of persecution have been treated.”
López indicated that given the increase in the migratory flow, the process that took two months has been extended to three months. “We realize that many of the migrants are requesting refuge status so that they are not deported and continue their journey, but they are wrong.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Monday that up to 16,000 migrants have arrived daily at the northern and southern borders. “In recent times, up to 4,000 migrants have passed through the Darién, which is a very dangerous area, through the borders of Colombia and Panama towards the south of Mexico. Now at the border of Chiapas the number increased to 6,000 daily, and the Last week (the number) on the northern border reached 10,000 migrants per day,” he expressed in his daily morning conference, after “regretting” the accident on a highway in Chiapas that claimed the lives of 10 Cuban women.
The general coordinator of Comar, Andrés Alfonso Ramírez Silva, confirms to this newspaper that from January to the end of September, 112,960 migrants were assisted. “The majority of those in the ecological park are Cubans and Haitians, some Hondurans.”
The Comar headquarters located in Tapachula have issued 53,698 pages (registration documents) and at the Palenque headquarters 7,405. “It is expected that at the end of the year there will be more than 150,000 applications,” says Ramírez.
In the improvised camp with tents in the ecological park there is also Yovanni Sáenz, who says that he left the Island because “there is no food” or “freedom of expression.” This native of Havana was forced to leave his family in Guantánamo to “give them a better future.”
Unfortunately, he says, “they taught us to live in fear,” it is time for “something to happen in Cuba,” it is no longer possible to live with “hunger, without transportation.”
Sáenz mentions that in Comar there is no “discipline”, but they must remain in line waiting to be given “a safe passage to transit for three months.”
Another of the Cubans who is at the site comments that on the Island “unfortunately the people do not unite and anyone who tries to do something is put in prison.” This was what motivated him to leave, “because if I don’t, they’ll put me in jail,” he says. “Unfortunately we have many compatriots who are imprisoned just for protesting.”
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