The Guatemalan authorities detained 18 Cuban migrants in an irregular situation who were traveling on a bus in the municipality of Cuilapa, 65 km from the country's capital.
The Cubans were part of a group of 51 undocumented immigrants, among whom there were also 21 Ecuadorians, seven Dominicans and five Nepalese.
They were all assisted by the National Civil Police and then sent to the Guatemalan Migration Institute shelter in the area to resolve their irregular immigration status.
Police from the Santa Rosa department captured three alleged human traffickers, three young people aged 23, 18 and 25, who were taking the migrants aboard a yellow Freightliner bus.
Investigators from the Specialized Criminal Investigation Division (DEIC) and the General Inspectorate also participated in the operation.
In mid-February, the Guatemalan authorities expelled a Cuban migrant who was illegal and that he was part of a group of 26 foreigners, among whom were immigrants from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.
Hundreds of migrants of various nationalities, including Cubans, cross Guatemala during their journey through Central America to reach Mexico and continue towards the southern border of the United States, where they can request asylum.
The Arrests of Cuban migrants in Guatemala were frequent in 2023.
In January of this year, almost 23 thousand Cubans arrived in the United States seeking asylum.
The Border Patrol reported that 22,946 migrants from the Island arrived at the country's borders, of them 6,596 in the Miami sector, where rafters arrive by sea. Most migrants enter through the land border with Mexico.
In the last two years, at least 533,000 Cubans arrived in the United States, a figure equivalent to 4.8% of the 11.1 million inhabitants; That is without counting the entries with other types of visa for which there are no official figures available, the agency revealed. AFP.
In 2023 more than 153,000 Cubans entered US territory irregularly.
Added to that number are another 67,000 who flew directly thanks to the humanitarian parole program, and the more than 313,000 who entered without papers in 2022.
What do you think?
COMMENTFiled in: