Gangs smuggling Cubans into US via Mexico route

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Gangs smuggling Cubans into US via Mexico route

`DRY FOOT': More Cubans are taking the risky trip by boat to Mexico and then traveling on land to the US border, where they are welcomed in under US law

AP, HAVANA
Friday, Aug 03, 2007, Page 7

The vast majority of Cubans sneaking off the island now enter the US through Mexico after US relatives pay thousands of dollars to organized crime networks that scoop them off Cuba's westernmost tip in souped-up speedboats.

The Mexico route is more dangerous than a direct, 145km voyage from Cuba to Florida, but there is less chance the US Coast Guard will intervene. Nearly 90 percent of all undocumented Cubans who make it to the US now come overland rather than reaching US shores by boat, US Customs and Border Protection say.

From the Mexican coast, Cubans then travel up to the US border, where unlike other undocumented migrants, they are welcomed in under US law.

Mexico, already struggling against organized crime, is paying the price for the migration shift, especially in Cancun, the nation's glittering Caribbean getaway. On Monday, investigators there found the body of a Cuban-American from Miami, Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon, handcuffed and with duct tape over his eyes. He had been shot 10 times, obliterating his face.

Days earlier, authorities had arrested at least eight people on suspicion of smuggling Cubans to Mexico, including six Cubans with US residency or citizenship who had just been interviewed by US authorities. Lara had connections to the suspects, Mexican officials say.



Read more: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/08/03/2003372534

[Judi Lynn]

1. Police discover bodies of suspected smugglers near Cancún

Saturday, August 4, 2007 - Page updated at 02:04 AM
Police discover bodies of suspected smugglers near Cancún
By Manuel Roig-Franzia

The Washington Post



MEXICO CITY — The bodies of three people suspected of smuggling Cubans to the United States through Mexico were found gagged and blindfolded Friday in a natural sinkhole near Cancún.

The killings were the latest in a series of incidents related to the smuggling of Cubans into Mexico, where authorities have observed a marked increase in such attempts in recent months.

At least four people linked to smuggling allegations have been killed this week in Cancún, which is 150 miles from Cuba and a popular landing spot for boats sneaking Cubans into the country.

Police were led to the three most recent victims — Jesus Aguilar, Edwin Park and a woman whose name was not given, all of whom are Mexican — by red arrows painted on a highway leading to the sinkhole, known as a "cenote."

More:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003821087_cubans05.html

[Peace Patriot]

2. It sounds as if they were smuggling more than people, and/or

were connected to U.S./Bush black ops in some way. Why would you kill the people who were smuggling you in, in such a systematic way, or WHO would kill them? Drug deal gone bad, and/or Bush hit (removing witnesses/evidence of something).

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. ya, it was cheney with a shotgun

put down the pipe, dude

[Judi Lynn]

4. The right-wing U.S. officials have used Cuban immigrants for all KINDS of malicious mischief,

the most well-known as Watergate burgling, and burgling the office of "Pentagon Papers" Daniel Elsworth's psychiatrist.

They have been useful for so MANY applications, from Operation Condor, assassinating "leftists" all over the world, even up to carbombing Chilean diplomat Orlando Letellier, and his American assistant, Ronnie Moffit, killing them both, and injuring Ronnie Moffit's husband on the streets of Washington, D. C. in broad daylight.

You probably are remembering all the ties between Cuban "exiles" and Iran/Contra drug running, etc., etc., especially high-profile in the careers of several Miami "celebrities" like Felix Rodriguez, personal friend of _{George H. W. Bush,} Ricardo "Monkey" Morales, airline/hotel/restuarant/disco, etc. bomber/mass murderer, Luis Posada Carriles, and all the others.

It would be a real mental abscess which would lead anyone to intimate there couldn't be any possible connection between selected Cuban operatives and drugs, or any other kind of mayhem.

It wasn't the people in Quebec who set off so many car bombs, fire bombs, etc. which led the F.B.I. to designate Miami as the "Terror Capital of the United States!"

[Ian David]

6. And don't forget the famous "Operation: Babalu"

[Ian David]

5. Cubans are (or WERE) the only racial minority that leaned toward Republicans.

If I remember correctly, that changed, for the first time, in 2006.

[Mika]

7. Um.. Cuban is not a race.

When you say "Cuban" you are talking about a nationality, not a race. There are Cubans of many races.