Cubans fleeing to Mexico more than Florida now

[El Presidente]

The New York Times

http://havanajournal.com/culture/entry/cub...an-florida-now/

CORTÉS, Cuba — Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in over a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west — to Mexico — in a convoluted route that avoids the United States Coast Guard.

The New York Times

American officials say the migration, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year smuggling enterprise, has risen sharply because many Cubans have lost hope that Raúl Castro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel in 2006, will make changes that will improve their lives. Cuban authorities contend that the migration is more economic than political and is fueled by Washington’s policy of rewarding Cubans who enter the United States illegally.

In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the southwestern border of the United States, the Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk right up to United States authorities at the border, benefiting from lax Mexican enforcement and relying on Washington’s “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which gives them the ability to become permanent residents if they can reach United States soil.

That is what José Luis Savater, 45, a refrigerator repairman from Havana, did in early October to reach southern Florida, which remains the goal for most migrating Cubans.

It took Mr. Savater almost four days to reach Isla Mujeres, Mexico, a coastal island, in a rickety boat made of wood, fiberglass and aluminum and powered by a jury-rigged motor used for irrigating fields. The 15 men and one woman with him took turns bailing.

“It’s extremely dangerous,” Mr. Savater said by telephone as he prepared to leave Cancún for the Mexican border. “I saw myself dead. I suffered a lot.”

But his next step was far easier: a flight to Matamoros, a border town just across from Brownsville, Tex., with the help of money wired from relatives in Florida. Some American officials are calling this new approach — Cubans’ strolling up to border stations and seeking political asylum — dusty foot.

Statistics make it clear that although the route is considerably longer, Cubans believe that traveling through Mexico from the tiny bayside village of Cortés and other new launching spots on the western side of Cuba increases their odds of reaching Miami. Almost twice as many — 11,487 — took it in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, as in fiscal 2005.

By comparison, the Coast Guard intercepted just 2,861 Cubans crossing the Florida Straits in fiscal 2007, and 4,825 others eluded American authorities, reached United States soil and, under the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, applied for residency, according to the Coast Guard.

The figures show that in fiscal 2007, migration from the island reached its highest level since 35,000 Cubans left in a mass exodus in 1994.

“The reason why people are willing to risk their lives to leave Cuba is the lack of hope and expectations,” Sean Murphy, the United States consul general in Havana, told reporters in early October.

The new route is not just diverting migrants. Smugglers are shifting too, resulting in turf battles that are believed to be behind a string of killings over the summer of Cuban nationals in the Yucatán Peninsula, where many of the migrants come ashore. That area is also crisscrossed by narcotics traffickers, and there is fear that the two businesses could merge.

The new route has attracted the attention of officials throughout the region, since Cubans sometimes go off track and land on other Caribbean islands or farther south in Central America.

Manuel Aguilera de la Paz, Cuba’s ambassador to Mexico, told reporters in early October that migration is at the top of the agenda as Mexico and Cuba seek to improve strained relations that prompted the two countries to briefly withdraw their ambassadors in 2004.

In Washington, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, has expressed concern about both the migration and the killings in the Yucatán, which have been concentrated near the resort town of Cancún. “There is some kind of struggle going on among gangs,” he said of the violence. He called the new route “a recent phenomenon.”

The Coast Guard’s aggressive patrols in the Florida Straits prompted migrants to turn to the new route, most agree. Those patrols were increased after the 1994 exodus, which led the Clinton administration to adopt the “wet foot, dry foot” policy. The Coast Guard returns migrants who are caught at sea to Cuba, where authorities have said they will not face retribution.

“It’s practically Mission Impossible to go directly to Miami,” said an American official who is tracking the issue but did not have approval to speak on the record about it.

In Mexico, however, the coast is far more loosely patrolled and, some say, local authorities are more likely to look the other way for a bribe.

The rocky eastern shore of Isla Mujeres, a speck of an island near Cancún, is a popular landing spot. Despite the presence of a Mexican Navy post, Cuban boats land regularly.

“We’re looking for Colombian drug dealers, not Cubans,” said a Mexican Navy enlisted man who was on night watch on a bluff that is the island’s highest point.

Mexican officials said that when the navy does intercept vessels with smuggled migrants, mostly those in distress, they are escorted ashore. The smugglers are arrested and their boats seized. But migrants are in most cases fined and then released. They have 30 days to leave the country, plenty of time to find their way north.

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Adriana Zehrbrauskas for The New York Times

Isla Mujeres's welcome map.

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Adriana Zehrbrauskas for The New York Times

Some of the boats used by Cubans on their risky escape voyage lie in the harbor master’s grounds on Isla Mujeres.

The smuggling networks themselves have become more sophisticated. The smugglers operate out of Miami, with representatives on the coasts of Cuba and Mexico, experts say. They carry satellite telephones so the transfers of the migrants are done with military precision.

Safe houses have been set up along the Mexican coast to help the Cubans elude Mexican authorities and avoid paying the fine. One Cuban who made it to Mexico said he was impressed by how well organized it all was.

Cuban rice and beans awaited him upon arrival in Mexico. Within days, he was off to the Texas border with instructions about what he should say to quickly enter the United States. Typically, the Cuban migrants are interviewed by agents who check their stories and whatever documentation they can produce, and listen closely for distinctive Cuban accents. Then, if no criminal records are found, the Cubans are generally allowed into the country. After a year, they gain permanent resident status.

The kinds of craft being used are often a step up from the vessels previously used. The boats leaving Cuba used to be the most ramshackle imaginable: inner tubes strung together, or rusted-out vessels powered by car engines or oars or even, in at least one case, a weed trimmer.

While many, like Mr. Savater, the Havana repairman, still travel that way, for the right price Cubans nowadays can climb aboard sleek, modern boats with three 275-horsepower outboard motors hanging from the back.

“They look like they can fly,” said a fisherman on Cuba’s southwestern coast who has spotted the vessels and spoke of them with a jealous look in his eye.

The boats swoop in to a prearranged spot on the Cuban coastline, quickly load and leave, with the price for the express service exceeding $10,000 in many cases. Some people — mostly young men who know the coast well — are allowed aboard without paying the full price, according to Cubans with knowledge of the business, but they have to promise to join the smuggling network and return to pick up more migrants.

Cuban authorities rarely stop the boats in time. They have set up military checkpoints along the coast and banned local residents from fishing along some stretches of beach to get a handle on the new escape routes. But the flow continues, mostly from remote beaches on the western half of the island.

“Mexico is that way,” said a fisherman near Cortés, pulling his boat ashore in a popular smuggling spot and gesturing west. “That’s the new way out.”

When Cuban authorities see a boat leaving, they use loudspeakers to warn of the dangers of the voyage and urge everyone to come back. But the boats rarely, if ever, do. If a boat seems headed for Florida, they radio the United States Coast Guard. If it seems on course to Mexico, they throw up their arms.

“I’m on the lookout,” said a young Cuban Coast Guard recruit outside Cortés, who was on what looked like a lifeguard tower jacked up 30 feet for a better view. Though he had high-powered binoculars, the stretch of coast he had to watch was vast.

Farther west, at another migrant-smuggling center, Cabo Francés, the army has set up a base at the beach and strung a tree branch across the only entry point with a small cardboard sign declaring it a military zone. Local residents have been told not to fish there until the problem is under control.

Like so much else in United States-Cuban relations, the migration is mired in bad blood.

Havana blames Washington for the exodus, saying that allowing Cubans who arrive illegally in the United States to stay permanently provides an incentive for people to risk their lives at sea. Cuban authorities grumble as well that Washington has issued only 15,000 of the 20,000 visas it promised under a recent migration accord to allow Cubans to enter legally.

The United States has a different view. American officials say government repression is the reason people are willing to risk their lives at sea. And they say that Cuban officials have not permitted the United States Interests Section in Havana to hire enough people to handle all the paperwork for the visas.

In Mexico, there is an acceptance of the arriving Cubans among coastal residents, with a tinge of resentment. “It’s sad that a Mexican can’t enter the U.S. if they reach the border and a Cuban can,” said Alba Ríos, a resident of Isla Mujeres who has noticed significant numbers of Miami Cubans arriving on the island to aid with the migrant flow.

Some Mexicans are even getting ideas from the Cubans. A trade is developing in Cuban identity documents, and some savvy Mexican migrants are now practicing Cuban accents and rehearsing dramatic stories they intend to tell United States Border Patrol agents about the horrors they have suffered in Havana.

[cvm4]

Well, it makes simple sense seeing as how it's so easy to get across and no one is willing to do anything about it.

[puros71]

I think we talked about this awhile back. So my number were true about $10,000.00 price tag to get them to Mexico. I know because lots of Cuban are coming through Mexico on fast boats to Cancun them coming over and walking up to the US Mex border. Some are getting invited to Mexico by fake so called boyfriends, set up by Miami smugglers, then making there way to the border were they file under Cuban Adjustment Act. How do I know becuase I know people who have done it. My question is, "How the hell do they get the money?" Some hustle, steal from government, sell their belongings, and borrow money family in the US. But when they get here they owe that person forever. I know people struggling hard 2 years here and still no progress. No english, dont want to go to school, and dont want to work the hard jobs that other latino immigrants do. So they just collect the free check. I tell them what ever you do get out of Florida. They get stuck in the Cubanismo, its like being in Cuba. There are success stories to, I know a friend of mine who came to the US 7 years ago not knowing English and only with the clothes on his back. He came on the lottery which the US gives to Cubans who want to come. He got hooked up with the Catholic Charities and ha had a choice to stay in Miami or send him to Las Vegas. He went to Las Vegas. Started as a bartender and now is a big real estate person there. Beautiful house, cars, harleys, you name it. Real good loving guy who had a dream, ambition, and drive. He never quit and gave 100 percent at what ever he did. When Americans would laugh or make fun of his English he would say, "Shut up at least I know 2 languages!.

[puros71]

another article:

Mexico police find Cuban-American's body

By JORGE DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 31, 3:17 PM ET

The body of a Cuban-American who was under investigation in a migrant smuggling case was found riddled with bullets along a road outside this Caribbean resort, authorities said Tuesday.

Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon, who was wearing only white Bermuda shorts, was found handcuffed and blindfolded with duct tape late Monday night. He had been shot at least 10 times, said Didier Vazquez, the director of the judicial police in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located.

Vazquez said Mexican police were investigating whether Lara was part of a Cuban-American group that smuggled Cubans from southern Mexico to the United States. He said Lara was from Miami and moved a year ago to nearby Merida, the capital of Yucatan state. He was reported missing July 20.

Earlier this month, Mexican authorities outside Cancun arrested eight people — six of whom were Cuban-Americans or Cubans with U.S. residency — on suspicion of smuggling migrants.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said American authorities traveled to Cancun to interview the detainees and confirm their nationalities, but refused to comment further.

It was unclear if Lara was also being investigated by U.S. authorities.

Mexican police are still searching for Lara's girlfriend, who was also reported missing July 20.

Quintana Roo's state prosecutor, Bello Mecho Rodriguez, told a news conference Tuesday that Lara was born in Cuba and first arrived in Mexico illegally. He later crossed the border into the United States, where he eventually became a citizen. Mecho Rodriguez gave no further details.

Mexico, whose Caribbean coast is about 120 miles southwest of Cuba, is increasingly used by smugglers as a route to get Cuban migrants into the United States.

Migrants arriving here travel to the U.S. border, where they identify themselves as Cubans to American officials and are usually allowed to stay. Cuban migrants detained in Mexico are also often allowed to stay.