• Submitted by: admin
• North America
• 03 / 22 / 2019

---

Darío (fictitious name) is Cuban and is waiting to be interviewed by the immigration authorities of the United States. He arrived in Mexico after going through Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. He crossed the Darien jungle and does not recommend it.

In the jungle he thought he was going to die. "It crossed my mind several times, it is very dangerous, many Indians are raiding, killing, raping, and in the group we were in we had run out of food, the women had breakfast and ate, the men ate only a spoonful of tuna. at night because we had almost no food, we had to ration it well. "

On the way they met the body of a boy. "They told us that he had fatigued because the day before entering the jungle he had a party and he took a lot and had even smoked marijuana, and he died on a hill called La Montaña del Muerto, which is more than 1,000 meters high" .

"After we left the jungle, when we arrived in Panama, the trip was calmer, it was just finding the buses and seeing where to get the passages to get through the country, the only difficult-difficult thing was that jungle," he tells CiberCuba by telephone. .

Darío says that when he talks to his friends in Cuba he tells everyone to wait to emigrate and not to take the jungle route. "I do not advise anyone, not even my worst enemy, which is very dangerous," he insists.

Since he left with his girlfriend from Cuba in the direction of Guyana, he has spent about $ 7,000. The money was given to him by his mother after selling the family home. "Before the trip I was two days without sleeping thinking about how it was going to be everything".

Darío had been dreaming of emigrating for many years. "That trip was unforeseen because in Cuba all my business was canceled and I had no other alternative, I ran out of money, I owed a lot of people."

Now, stranded on the United States border with Mexico, Darío does not even consider deporting him. "Returning to Cuba is not an option for me, I can not go back because there they fucked up all my business and my things, in Cuba they told me that if I was still there they would put me in jail. my family is me. "

Guyana

With the money from the sale of the house, Darío settled his debts and took out bills for Guyana. "I prepared the trip in a week, I left for Guyana without knowing what I was going to do, and when I was there I found out everything I needed to do" to get to the United States.

In Guyana, the same owner of the house where he stayed told him what to do to continue on his way. "Guyana is the most difficult route because it is the furthest, it's a long way to go, I went out there because I could not wait for a visa or for Mexico." The moment I left, it was not open. Panama, Guyana is a free visa and that's where I had to go. "

Brazil and Venezuela

From Guyana he left for Brazil in a small plane and from there to Venezuela, a country that they crossed for four days by truck. "They have a lot of work, they are very scared, they said that in Venezuela that is bad and that at night they closed the streets, assaulted, kidnapped the people and gave fire to the cars".

Colombia

But everything went well. They entered through Cúcuta, Colombia. They crossed the whole country and in Turbo they were waiting for a contact called Santiago who cheated them 2,000 dollars. He told them that he would take him and his girlfriend out through the jungle and that he would take them to Panama City. "That contact left us in the middle of the jungle thrown to me and my wife and several people who had paid him."

In Turbo they mounted it in a boat to take it to Capurganá, in the Colombian Caribbean coast. "That's the town through which you enter the jungle."

The group had planned to enter the jungle on a Sunday, but that day the Panamanian Guard grabbed a few Cubans and Darío's group returned it to Capurganá. "We went back to the house where we were staying, and we left for the jungle on Monday at two in the afternoon."

Although everything was paid before entering the jungle, the guides, halfway, ask for more money. "They charge you 50 dollars and if they do not pay you they tell you that they leave you bounced, you have to walk too much in the jungle, many high mountains, very dangerous, we were 11 Cubans, 100 do not remember if they were Haitians or Angola and 26 Hindus" .

"It was a lot of work because we were my wife and I and I had the backpack with all the food loaded, it was a lot, we spent one night without sleeping, everyone was awake, with the flashlights on because they told us that a cougar was hunting us."

"In the jungle we were lost for 8 days because the guides left us boarded in. The last three days we were without food: five people eating from a can of tuna, many of the comrades who came with us raped the women in the jungle. Many of them were assaulted, we were from the same group, but we separated. "

The guides told them to throw out the food because they said that in a half day they would find the first village. "It was a lie, we dropped food, we threw out everything and we never found anything, that's why we ran out of food in the jungle."

Panama

Once out of the jungle, they easily reached Panama City, where they made "as an asylum document" that they needed to remain in Panamanian territory. From there they continued on their way to Costa Rica. Until the capital of the country arrived in a taxi that charged $ 350 to him and another $ 350 to his girlfriend. "To pass some checkpoints we had to get into the trunk of that car."

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, as soon as he entered the country, a taxi driver called him and told him that he was taking him to the bus stop and getting out of the taxi the police took him. "They took us at night and took us to the station and gave us food, and the next morning they took us to Migration and they gave us a safe-pass, then we took a bus and left Costa Rica."

Nicaragua

In Costa Rica, Darío and his girlfriend took a bus to the Nicaraguan border. "When we arrived there were several coyotes who wanted to charge us to help us cross, but a lady helped us and told us not to pay anyone that all you have to do to enter Nicaragua is to jump a wall that was on the side of behind".

They all ran and jumped the wall and surrendered to the Nicaraguan Army. "We had to pay 150 dollars for each one and they transferred us to Migración, who pretends to put us in the system and there they put us a bus that is worth 30 dollars to take us directly to the Honduran border. At night you should never cross because that piece is very bad. "

Honduras

As soon as they arrived in Honduras, they went to Migración in Choluteca, where they kept their passport. "We could not get money because we did not have documentation, they told us that the process was delayed 15 days and we could not be there for 15 days because it was going to cost us a lot of money, we went to human rights and we made a revolt. a chaos what was in Honduras. "

After four days they returned their passport and left by bus to the border with Guatemala.

Guatemala and Mexico

From there, the trip was calmer. Now the concern is that the safe-conduct to stay in Mexico is only 20 days, but when you arrive at the border you have been told that the queue to spend the interview lasts approximately 25 days.

Dario is speechless when the possibility of deportation arises. "I can not go back."