With semi-nude videos and threats of beatings: this is how they ask for ransoms for Cubans kidnapped in Mexico

The situation of Cubans when they arrive in Mexico is getting worse, as some of them have denounced. In view ofthe increase in migrants from Cuba, criminals are using methods to ask for money from the relatives of the islanders in the United States, as shown in a report byTelevisa News.

"Now tell him, tell him yourself what has happened to the people here who do not receive their money, tell him," a Cuban is heard recording another who is completely naked on camera. The young man identified as Daniel García, 20, responds: "They hit me."

This would be just one of the cases of criminal gangs in Yucatán, Mexico, thatCuban migrants kidnapped, they torture and film them half-naked to ask their relatives in the United States for money, up to 10 thousand dollars, according to the program's report.O'clock.

"They have beaten him... with blows, they have hit him very hard," he adds in response to another question from the kidnapper. He continues "and what else have they done to the people?", the young man, with fear, points out "Without eating." "And what else?" he insists. "Without drinking water."

This young man, according to that medium, left Cuba on January 4, 2019 by raft to Yucatán, where he arrived on the 6th. There he was kidnapped by a gang of Cuban and Mexican criminals who took him to a house in Mérida.

"What else has been given to him? Has he been given power?" the kidnapper continues to ask the Cuban in the video. "Current too," says the young man. "How many days have you gone without eating?", to which he assures "about six days now."

Although this unfortunate kidnapping occurred at the beginning of 2019, its details have now been made known.

García was one of those released along with three other Cubans on January 11 by the Mexican immigration authorities, who identified the house where they were being held after their relatives filed a complaint with the US authorities.

The FBI and the Attorney General's Office of Mexico managed to locate the house where García and other migrants from Cuba were. As part of the police operation, the Cuban who recorded them and a Mexican woman who watched them and collected extortion payments were arrested, the aforementioned media adds.

"Unfortunately, Mexico is a lethal country for the migrant and refugee population," said Erika Guevara, from Amnesty International (AI), toTelevisa News.

According to their testimony, this NGO has documented extortion by organized crime groups, kidnappings and even executions of migrants. Given this scenario, those who suffer these episodes should receive a humanitarian visa in Mexico to participate in the investigation; demand.

In this sense, some Cubans denounced in June the insecurity they felt in that country and thatThey were "undergoing a hunt".

On July 3, the National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico detailed in a statement that both García and the other detainees have ahumanitarian visa.

The INM specifies that these Cubans were made available to them on January 20, since then they remained at the Immigration Station in Mérida, Yucatán. Since February 14, they have been found with a Visitor Card for Humanitarian Reasons.

CyberCuba tried to access the note you citeTelevisa News, but it does not appear on the websiteSecretary of the Interior, nor in theINM, at least with the date of July 3, nor on their social networks.

Since the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to power, particularly as of March 2019,the deportation of Cubans increased significantly.

And the panorama adds up,the reduction of visas for Cubans to the United States due to the problems with the island's regime and the closure of the border with Mexico, one of the escape routes after traveling through Central America.