A group of Cuban migrants reported as kidnapped at Mexico’s northern border has been released, a newspaper reported on Monday , as officials continued probing the disappearances of other migrants in the region.
Thirteen Cubans kidnapped in the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas
were released on Sunday and appeared to make their way to the United States, newspaper EL UNIVERSAL said, citing a family member of a kidnapped migrant who was sent a video of the people walking to the U.S. border.
The kidnappers had forced their victims to call their families and demanded a USD$1,300 ransom for each one, threatening to kill them if they failed to comply.
The newspaper reported that a criminal group demanding ransom kidnapped several of the migrants a week before, holding them with nine other Cuban migrants who were previously kidnapped.
The state government said it had not received any kidnapping reports related to the group. The Cuban embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
told a regular news conference on Monday that officials were still looking for 22 people , thought to be migrants, who were kidnapped by armed men from a bus in early March in Tamaulipas.
Violent clashes among criminal gangs in the state have led to high rates of murders and disappearances for years.
López Obrador also said that Mexico is making progress in reaching an agreement with the United States on investment in Central America and Mexico to reduce migration.
Cuban migrants
An increase in the inflow of Cuban migrants was registered in the Mexican state of Chiapas at the beginning of the year.
The migrants have waited to obtain exit permits at the state’s migratory regularization office. Said permit would allow them to legally travel through the Mexican territory and arrive in the United States to apply for asylum.
However, during the past two weeks, some Cubans have filed complaints regarding cases of alleged corruption involving lawyers and government agents who are charging between USD$300 and $900 dollars to “expedite” the processing of requests.
The delay in the issuance of the migration document, which is supposed to be free of cost and usually takes up to 20 days, has caused outrage among migrants.
In view of this, the National Migration Institute (INM) moved 72 Cubans to their offices in Acayucan, Veracruz in order to smooth procedures since it is estimated that more than 1,500 Cubans are waiting to receive their exit permits.
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