Published on Friday, September 12, 2008
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters): Cuba and Mexico are discussing how to
clamp down on the flow of illegal Cuban immigrants through Mexico to the
United States, Cuba's Ambassador Manuel Aguilera said on Thursday.
Aguilera said the two countries could reach an initial agreement on
undocumented migration when Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
visits Mexico in the next few weeks.
"What we are discussing is how to get both countries to increase our
cooperation so that the migratory flow between Mexico and Cuba is safe,
legal and orderly," Aguilera told a news conference.
Thousands of Cubans slip into Mexico by boat each year, mostly to the
Yucatan Peninsula, without exit permits from the Cuban government.
They then make their way overland to the United States where, unlike
other Latin American immigrants, they only have to make it onto US soil
and request political asylum to be let in.
If arrested in Mexico, the Cubans are often released, and then they head
north.
Cubans seeking to get to Florida traditionally packed into boats and
motored across the Florida Straits, but US drug patrols in the area have
made it harder to get through. The longer route via Mexico has become
more popular in recent years.
Human traffickers are believed to be working in conjunction with drug
smuggling gangs that control organized crime and police protection
rackets up and down Mexico.
The Cuban ambassador said talks were centered around cracking down on
migrant-smuggling gangs while also making it easier for academics and
business executives to get visas to travel between the two countries.
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