Yarissel Díaz Arcia, a 19-year-old Cuban migrant, has been missing since the morning of April 30 in Tapachula, while immigration authorities deployed operations against a caravan of Haitians heading toward the center of the country.
The Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office reported that the young woman had a phone call with a relative, presumably located in Cuba, around 10:30 a.m. on the day of her disappearance, but has not been heard from since.
Yarissel Díaz Arcia entered Mexico in 2024 and had settled in Tapachula, where she was completing paperwork related to her legal status in the country.
Originally from Palmira, Cienfuegos province, Cuba, the young woman has several distinctive tattoos: figures on her right arm; roses and a flower with leaves on her left shoulder; a vertical flower on the left side of her collarbone; flowers and the word “resilience” on one leg. She also has a scar on the right side of her face, according to the missing person report issued by the Prosecutor’s Office.
On the day of her disappearance, she was wearing blue denim capri pants, black sandals, and a green t-shirt.
The news website El Tapachulteco Denuncia reported that Yarissel was last seen on May 1st, around 2:00 a.m., accompanied by her partner at the house she rented; however, the landlord stated that the migrant never returned.
In its May edition, Proceso magazine published the report: “Cubans Disappeared in Mexico: Human Traffickers, Sea Journey, and a Last Phone Call.”
In a separate incident, agents from the National Migration Institute (INM) conducted an operation this Wednesday to detain members of the migrant caravan known as “David,” which is traveling along Federal Highway 200, on the Tonalá-Arriaga stretch.
The group, made up primarily of Haitian migrants, has been walking for two weeks from Tapachula to Tonalá in temperatures exceeding 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit).
During the operation, several migrants ran to avoid arrest, abandoning backpacks and strollers used to transport minors. Some of the migrants shouted “Help!” as they fled from immigration agents.
The migrants remained in Tonalá for two days, during which time they received food, water, and medicine.
Also, a group of Cuban mothers arrived in Mexico to search for their children, who disappeared on December 21, 2024, while traveling toward the northern border, allegedly transported by human trafficking gangs between Mazatán, Chiapas, and Juchitán, Oaxaca.
The women, accompanied by members of the Regional Network of Migrant Families, will travel through various locations in Chiapas and Mexico City from May 2 to 16.
Source: proceso
