The Honduran National Police reported Wednesday that they had arrested 10 Cubans and a man who was illegally transporting them.
“Through an observation and surveillance operation, the National Police arrested a citizen for the illegal transportation of 10 Cuban citizens in the city of Choluteca, Choluteca,” the press release said.
The suspected coyote was identified as “a 33-year-old farmer, originally from and residing in El Triunfo, Choluteca, who was sent an investigative report for committing the flagrant crime of human trafficking.”
The suspect was transporting, in his private vehicle, 10 Cuban nationals who wanted to cross the Honduras-Guatemala border to continue their migratory route to the United States.
The Cubans entered Honduras illegally and were placed in the hands of the Honduran National Migration Institute. They can pay a $200 fine to expedite their legal exit from the country, local media outlet La Prensa reported.
Responsible for the arrest were the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit (UTIC) of the Police Investigations Directorate (DPI) and the Special Tactical Operations Group (GOET).
During the campaign, a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, black, was confiscated; two mobile phones of different brands and models; and 23,000 Lempiras in cash in notes of various denominations.
“As a result of the foregoing, the Honduran Police Directorate of Investigation will now make the accused available to the on-duty Prosecutor’s Office of that location to proceed in accordance with the relevant law,” the press release concluded.
The identities of the 10 Cubans detained in Honduras have not been released by the Honduran National Police or the local press.
Through surveillance and surveillance operations, the DPI has arrested one person for illegally smuggling ten Cuban citizens #choluteca #choluteca. #EfficientAndReliable. pic.twitter.com/HT8qYi5bkk
— DPI (@dpi_honduras) April 27, 2022
Since April 12, the government of Honduras has announced a procedure for temporarily exempting itself from a $220 fine that must be paid by immigrants in a human mobility situation for entering the Central American country irregularly, Spanish agency Efe reported .
“The request for immunity from fines is part of the will of the State of Honduras, through the government of President Xiomara Castro, to offer security to migrants in an irregular situation and to provide articulated responses to the phenomenon of migration as a country of origin. , Transit, Destination and Return,” said the National Migration Institute (INM).
More than 16,000 immigrants, mostly from Cuba, have been arrested in Honduras this year for entering the country illegally to reach the United States, according to INM figures.
Honduras is one of the countries that Cubans pass through after leaving the island via Nicaragua. Many experts believe that this year there will be a new mass exodus, comparable to the crisis of the rafters on the Mariel. “Some 125,000 Cubans arrived in the United States in 1980, when the island’s ports and marinas were opened to allow U.S. ships to accommodate anyone wishing to leave,” the Washington Post noted.
According to the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), nearly 80,000 Cubans have entered the United States via the border with Mexico alone in the past six months.
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