Six days after the death of Cuban Luis Enrique Méndez, who would be returned to the Island on a flight, the National Migration Institute (INM) suspended the so-called “assisted returns”, through which Mexico has returned 789 migrants this year. anus. According to an official who requested anonymity, “there is a procedural pause” until further orders.
Immigration reported that Méndez would be returned with other Cubans on a flight on November 16, however, the official told 14 intervene that there was no record of “any transfer to the airport” that day, nor “a list of migrants.” A day before, 43 Cubans were returned.
“The INM manages a double discourse with the López Obrador Government. On paper there are no longer deportations,” he tells 14 intervene the lawyer José Luis Pérez. “Immigration has known how to disguise these departures under the legal figure of an ‘assisted return’, that is, that the Cubans asked to return to their country of origin when it is not true.”
Mexico, the lawyer explains, “could prevent a Cuban from entering the country if they have a criminal or terrorist record, but these people do not have them. They leave their country fleeing hunger, the violation of human rights and freedom of expression. “.
“The INM manages a double discourse with the López Obrador Government. On paper there are no longer deportations”
According to what was revealed to this newspaper, Cuba accepted the returns of its compatriots starting in October, as long as the travel expenses were covered by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “There is a cost of 4,000 pesos (237 dollars) for each migrant.”
Since Mexico resumed flights to Havana, it used the services of the airline Viva Aerobús. In total, it has transported 435 Cubans in five connections. “Immigration has a budget item for deportations. It is not a new expense,” said the official.
In 2013, the INM confirmed that it annually spent more than one billion pesos ($58 million) to repatriate foreign migrants, most of them Central Americans.
“Mexico paid a lot of money for the return of migrants, which is why it stopped the flights,” says the lawyer. “With a Government that talks about austerity and the approaches it has with the United States to stop the migratory flow, I would not doubt that the money comes from the North American country.”
Odlanier is a Cuban who, given the delay in the Immigration procedures to obtain a safe passage, seeks to leave with the help of a coyote towards the northern border of Mexico. “I’m waiting for a money transfer, because nothing is safe here,” he tells 14 intervene. This migrant arrived in Tapachula on November 2 and claims that the Siglo XXI station, where his compatriot Luis Enrique Méndez died, released several foreigners on November 16. “Several joined the caravan and are already in Oaxaca, others have not left for fear of being detained and deported.”
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