Relatives of Cuban migrants who vanished in Chiapas, Mexico, on December 21, 2024, condemned authorities' inaction at a press conference on October 25, 2025. Six Cubans and one Honduran are among at least 40 people who lost contact after traveling with a smuggler. They demand transparent investigations and international coordination to find them.
On December 21, 2024, at 7:45 a.m., in San José El Hueyate, Chiapas, Meiling Avarez Bravo, 40, and her 14-year-old son Samei Armando Reyes Alvarez, along with Dairanis Tan Ramos, Elianis de la Caridad Morejon Perez, Jorge Alejandro Lozada Santos, and Lorena Rozabal Guevara, were waiting for transport to continue toward the U.S. border. They had left Cuba on December 12, flown to Nicaragua, and entered Mexico on December 18. In Tapachula, they contacted a smuggler and paid between 1,000 and 2,000 USD for a river crossing to Juchitan, Oaxaca, to avoid National Migration Institute checkpoints.
The group, including Honduran Ricardo Hernandez, boarded a boat with at least 40 people, but no one has heard from them since. Last messages included: Jorge to his mother Alicia Santos Torres: “Mom, Lorena and I left among the last 20”; Elianis: “Mom, take care of Lulu, my dog”; Dairanis: “Mom, everything’s fine, I’m waiting”; and Meiling: “Mom, we’re going to have breakfast to see if we can leave this place already”.
Families reported the disappearance to the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office and the Cuban Consulate in Mexico on January 27, 2025, but received only excuses and silence. The smuggler gave inconsistent responses, claiming detentions or kidnappings, before cutting contact. In Cuba, they approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without concrete results.
At the October 25, 2025, press conference organized by the Regional Network of Migrant Families, the mothers, wearing white T-shirts with photos of their loved ones and the phrase “Until we find you,” denounced negligence. “Imagine what it means for a mother not to know where her child is,” one said. Graciela Ramos, mother of Dairanis, criticized: “Where is the empathy? Does a migrant’s life have no value in Mexico?”.
With civil society support, they filed a formal complaint on April 9, 2025, and contacted the UN, which opened a case and demanded actions from Mexico and Cuba. Families face extortion and urge the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to investigate, with coordination among countries. “We will not allow their dreams to become forgotten statistics,” warned Lilian Hernandez, sister of Ricardo.