Violence Against Cuban Women on the Migration Route
new feminicides in Chiapas, Mexico
HAVANA TIMES – The lifeless bodies of Cuban women Ana Mercedes Capetillo Savón and Leydi de la Caridad Rodríguez Acosta, aged 33 and 36 respectively, were found on Friday, November 15, 2024, in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.
According to reports from Diario Sur, Ana and Leydi were in a hotel when they were kidnapped by an “armed group” still unidentified. On November 10, their captors forced them to record and post a video on their social media directed to their families. They demanded $8,000 USD in exchange for their freedom.
Authorities suspect that, as they did not receive the ransom, both women were killed. Their remains were abandoned on a road leading to the town of Pumpuapan, in Tapachula.
At the time of the crime, Ana Mercedes worked at a bar in Tapachula, but according to family and friends, her goal was to reach the United States. Leydi had arrived in Mexico four months earlier.
Cuban Migrants in a Narco-State
Chiapas is located in southern Mexico and borders Guatemala. It is Olmec and Chiapaneca territory, where Mayan ruins are consumed by dense jungle vegetation. Chiapas, home to a dozen indigenous languages. Chiapas, birthplace of fried empanadas filled with beans. Chiapas, colorful. Chiapas, a narco-state. Chiapas, disputed territory.
“Chiapas bleeds, flees, or barely survives in an escalating, relentless wave of violence,” wrote journalist Alejandro Santo Cid in February 2024 for El País. Since 2021, Chiapas has been the scene of a war between the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and various other armed groups, both local and national.
Large expanses of isolated land without institutional presence, political complicity, and an absent state have turned Chiapas into fertile ground for organized crime. A place where human rights violations are considered “mere collateral damage.”
The border connection between Chiapas and Guatemala makes this Mexican state a key point on the drug route from South America to the United States. But drug trafficking is not the only lucrative business for the armed groups competing for control of the area. Migrants traveling from Central America have become another source of income for the cartels.
Twenty-four hours after Ana and Leydi’s video, the release of Cuban doctor Adrian Pupo Ojeda was made public. He was also a victim of a kidnapping in Tapachula during his journey to the United States. The captors demanded $10,000 USD. The amount was raised thanks to donations from friends and family.
Nine months earlier, the organization 1800 Migrante reported the kidnapping of 95 migrants — including women and children — during their passage through Tapachula.
According to reports from La República, the Sinaloa Cartel charges a fee of at least $100 USD per person to travel through “their routes” toward the United States. The US National Security Committee estimates that in 2021 alone, the cartels generated around 13 million dollars from the trafficking of migrants to the north.
Tapachula, the city where Ana Mercedes and Leydi de la Caridad lived, is a strategic hub in the migration corridor.
In September 2023, the organization Pueblos Sin Frontera estimated that more than 100,000 Cubans had approached the offices of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid in Tapachula. The vast majority were seeking “complementary protection” to remain in Mexico while waiting for their asylum appointment to the United States through the CBP One app. However, in a conversation with the portal 14ymedio, Pueblos Sin Frontera stated that the number of Cubans in the municipality of Tapachula could be even higher.
The Exodus That Never Ends
Cuba is experiencing a massive exodus that has reached record numbers in the last three years. An exodus highly feminized, which shows no signs of decreasing anytime soon. Quite the opposite. Given the health, food, and political emergencies on the island, along with rumors of a possible end to the US humanitarian parole program, it is expected that even more Cubans will use irregular routes to reach their destinations before January 2025.
International organizations have warned about the constant violations of human rights during irregular migration. The conditions imposed by discriminatory laws make the journey more difficult and dangerous. This not only involves unmet basic needs — shelter, food, and water — but also deficiencies in healthcare and the treatment of sexual violence cases.
“Sexual violence on migration routes is a constant,” explained Luz Patricia Mejia, technical secretary of the Belem do Para Convention Monitoring Mechanism, in a conversation with El Toque. “It is part of a mechanism [where] women’s bodies become the currency of exchange,” she specified.
In the research Cuban Women on the Move: Sexual Violence and Other Risks on the Route to the United States, Diana — who crossed by land during the early months of her pregnancy — speaks of gunshots, weapons, and clashes with the police. She constantly felt like merchandise. She felt vulnerable.
“[The coyotes] are involved in trafficking everything — people, drugs. So, no matter how much they may seem like good people, they are not. They are people with a business,” she explained.
Irregular migration is marked by negotiations with criminal groups that facilitate — or hinder — the journey. Feminized bodies tend to undertake the journey unaware of their rights.
The Belem do Para Convention, adopted on June 9, 1994, establishes the right of women — including migrant women — to live free of violence. This includes holding those responsible accountable and ensuring that women receive reparations to rebuild their lives. However, the international organization acknowledges that many of the signatory states — including Mexico — do not provide an effective response to requests for support, reparations, or justice from migrant women. As a result, women experience the process alone, in silence.
After the murders of Ana Mercedes and Leydi de la Caridad, collectives and activists called on authorities to implement strategies to stop violence against migrant women, who risk their lives every day as they cross the southern border. As of the closing of this article, there have been no statements from the Mexican government regarding the crime or the request from civil society.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.