06 June 2010

CUBA/MEXICO: Details Emerge On Human Smuggling In Q.Roo; Mayor Under Arrest Is Implicated.

MIAMIHERALD/CUBAN COLADA/     A lucrative human trafficking network that moved Cubans to the Yucatán peninsula and later the U.S. was reported by the newspaper El Diario of Ciudad Juárez. It started in January 2009 with tourist visas or official permits issued to the Cubans for a six-month stay in Mexico to appear in various artistic "shows" by a company managed by a local politician. They stayed until they could be taken to the U.S. border. The then-mayor of Benito Juárez City, Gregorio Sánchez Martínez, was an active supporter of that endeavor. He is in jail charged with organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering.