What is one thing you do not see in Mexican movies, telenovelas or documentaries on TV? Yup, Black people. Percentually, Mexico probably has less black population than Martha’s Vineyard in the summer and Mexicans are as considerate as the Klan for shit like this. Unless they have Cartel protection (which I doubt) these Africans may end up planted somewhere in a Mexican field of feeding sharks.
I don’t think Latin America has seen this influx of Africans since the importation of slaves was forbidden.
Honest question: how did Africans *get* there? They’re migrants, so generally not really wealthy enough to afford the trip, but here they are. Even if they could afford the trip, why? It’s Mexico. Not a big step up from the homeland, probably just as violent, and waaay more intolerant of them.
So… how’d they get there? Why? Who sent them??
Those who could, flew. Most took boats that would drop them anywhere from Brazil to Mexico.
As for the who? No idea.
To answer Dead J’s question, Tapachula is a major stop on the Africa-to-U.S. alien smuggling pipeline. Here’s how it works: The aliens contact a smuggler in their home country, who rents them a genuine passport. They don’t even change the name or the photo in the passport. The alien is transported through Africa, then flown (with a group of other smuggled aliens) from (for example) Johannesburg to Sao Paulo. The Sao Paulo immigration authorities are breathtakingly corrupt and are on the smugglers’ pad. After the aliens are admitted to Brazil, the smuggler retrieves the aliens’ passports and takes them (the passports) back to Africa for reuse (It’s called “recycling.”) The aliens are then smuggled through South and Central America to the Mexican port of entry at Tapachula, Chiapas, on the Guatemalan border, where they turn themselves in to the Mexican authorities. The Mexicans then give them a 30-day “voluntary departure” letter (aka a “run letter”) that says they must leave Mexico within 30 days. They use this letter to travel legally through Mexico to the U.S. border, where they apply for asylum. The system has been in place for at least fifteen years.
All this is pretty expensive, so how do they pay for it? Well, many of them have relatives or clan members in the U.S. who will pay at least part of the freight, and quite a few of them indenture themselves to various U.S. businesses. A similar pipeline from China costs around $40,000, and the Chinese who use it indenture themselves for life to various Chinese restaurants around the country that are in on the scheme. It’s still better than living in China.
Studies vary slightly, depending on the specific criteria used, but most demographic studies of Mexico’s population say that 90-95% of Mexican citizens are of European descent… What we, in the US, would call “white people.”
And Mexico is probably one of the most diverse states in the region.
[…] Gun Free Zone – Mexican Police clash with African migrants […]