Cuban Luis Enrique Méndez died due to the apathy of the agents at the Siglo XXI immigration station, located in Tapachula, where he went last Wednesday to ask for help because he felt bad, denounced the director of the NGO, Center for Human Dignification. Luis García Villagran. This migrant from the Island “died in the Immigration facilities and not in the hospital,” a government source said. 14 intervene.
García Villagrán blamed Sheila Díaz, in charge of the Siglo XXI station, and the director of the immigration regulation offices in Tapachula, Claudia Albores, because when the Cuban presented a health crisis, on November 16, “there was no control.” . The activist lamented the inhumane conditions in which people are locked up in this federal complex.
The National Migration Institute (INM) indicated in a statement that the Cuban migrant “voluntarily requested return” to the Island. As part of the procedure, a medical evaluation was carried out. Méndez, the report reads, “did not present data on any illness,” in addition to the fact that he “reported not having chronic illnesses.”
This migrant from the Island “died in the Immigration facilities and not in the hospital,” said a government source.
The INM points out in its use, that 24 hours after his entry, the migrant felt ill and was given medical attention and again, on the second day, when he was supposed to return to Cuba, he again expressed discomfort, so he “returned to his accommodation” and for the It later got worse. After providing first aid, he was “urgently taken” to the Cofat Hospital, less than 200 meters from the Siglo XXI station, where doctors confirmed that he no longer had vital signs.
The official information from Immigration was rejected by activist García Villagrán. For its part, a source from the Mexican Government, close to the case, stated that Luis Enrique Méndez “was not registered on the INM income list – a common practice of agents to prevent them from being able to seek protection and evade deportation –, in addition to that “he had not scheduled any assisted return” on the day he died.
For its part, the Cuban Embassy in Mexico reported This Friday the Island’s consulate in Veracruz already contacted the relatives of the deceased compatriot and the Mexican authorities to determine the causes of death.
The Siglo XXI station is the same one that was denounced last October by Havana resident Carlos Álvarez. The agents kept him incommunicado for 20 days in a place that he compared to “a jail.” During his stay, he told this newspaper, seven Cubans and about 45 Venezuelans, Haitians and Hondurans “were kept in quarters.” Because they were making adjustments to the place, many slept on the floor and “I’m not even talking about the food.”
According to official data, between 2018 and 2022, 12 migrants died while they were in the custody of Immigration, three of these cases were at the Siglo XXI ranch, located in Tapachula (Chiapas). Earlier this year, 40 migrants died and ten others were injured in a fire at a station in Ciudad Juárez, on Mexico’s northern border.
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