Cuban migrants attempt to force their way into the immigration offices of Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico
More than 400 migrants, among them many Venezuelans and Cubans, broke into the immigration offices in Ciudad Hidalgo (Chiapas), a Mexican city bordering Guatemala, reported several media outlets in the region.
The migrants are desperate and fear that they will not to be attended to after the announcement of the cancellation of online appointments.
This desperation has led them to force their way into immigration offices to demand the delivery of documentation that will allow them to regularize their situation and continue north.
Cubans and Venezuelans have been protesting for several days in front of the offices of the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Hidalgo.
After announcing the suspension of online appointments due to maintenance work, the migrants began to get excited and shout to be attended to.
The situation became tense and chaotic. The National Guard troops guarding access to the offices were overwhelmed and could do little in the face of the hundreds of migrants demanding an exit document to travel north of Mexico to the southern border of the United States.
The angry protest of Cubans, Venezuelans, and other Central American migrants has provoked a response from Mexican immigration agents. They have promised that this Thursday, March 17, 2022, they will respond to the migrants’ requests.
The migratory situation in southern Mexico becomes more complicated with each passing day. In the last few weeks, there have been several similar protests.
On Saturday, March 12, 2022, Cuban and Venezuelan migrants angrily protested at a crossing that separates Mexico from Guatemala and demanded humanitarian visas from the INM.
Migration offices in the south of the country are already saturated with people seeking to be attended by the staff of the National Migration Institute (INM). Many migrants have begun to travel to Ciudad Hidalgo to complete their paperwork.
Most of those arriving in Ciudad Hidalgo come from Tapachula. In this border city the situation is chaotic due to the saturation of migrants, including many Haitians and Africans.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself has witnessed the situation in the country’s south during a recent tour of Chiapas.
Mexico has intercepted more than 73,000 foreigners with an irregular stay between January 1 and March 8, 2022. The vast majority are people seeking to reach the United States illegally.
López Obrador will travel next May to Cuba in his first official visit to the island.
The Mexican president will also visit El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. One of the topics on the agenda is to talk about the regional migration wave and discuss proposals to “address the causes” that provoke it.
