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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2008 
Armed Men Snatch 33 Cubans in Mexico
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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| | Unidentified Cuban citizens are escorted by Mexican navy soldiers after being arrested in Cancun, Mexico, Friday, June 6, 2008. The Mexican navy detained 38 Cubans who were traveling in makeshift boats off the country's Caribbean coast and believed to be heading to the United States. (AP/Israel Leal) | | |
Mexico City - Armed men hijacked a bus carrying 33 Cubans and four Central American migrants detained in southern Mexico after forcing immigration agents away at gunpoint, officials said on Thursday.
A half-dozen assailants wearing masks and carrying guns blocked the road, stopped the bus and forced the seven unarmed agents and two bus drivers to get off, Mexico's National Immigration Institute said.
The hijacking occurred late Wednesday in the southern state of Chiapas. None of the immigration agents or bus drivers were harmed.
"The armed men took off with the foreigners to an unknown destination," the Immigration Institute said in a press statement.
An immigration official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the assailants threatened the agents with "heavy caliber weapons." He initially said 34 Cubans had been involved. The bus was later discovered, empty near the jungle city of Ocosingo.
The Cubans had been detained June 5 on Mexico's Caribbean coast near Cancun.
Immigration officials said they did not know who carried out the attack, or if they were immigrant smugglers seeking to recover their charges. Migrant traffickers have sometimes been known to kidnap groups of migrants from their rivals, and later ransom them off.
Cubans are increasingly traveling through Mexico to reach the U.S., instead of trying to get past U.S. Coast Guard patrols off Florida.
There have been violent incidents related to the smuggling of Cuban migrants in the past: a suspected Cuban-American smuggler was shot and seriously wounded in Mexico in December. But Wednesday's assault marked the first case in recent memory that assailants targeted migrants who'd already been detained by immigration authorities.
The seized Cubans and Central Americans were being taken to an immigration processing center in the nearby city of Tapachula when the attack occurred. Mexican immigration agents are normally unarmed on such assignments. |
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