The Deadly Road Through Mexico

When Cubans leave their homeland, things can get lots worse.

A A A Comments By Francisco Alvarado and Russell Cobb and Paul Knight Thursday, Jan 10 2008

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Rodríguez believes a rival Cuban-American ring paid Los Zetas to kill Morejón, his girlfriend, and his business associates. "Where we found the bodies and how they were killed points to Los Zetas," Rodríguez says.

Nearly six months after the murders, Mexican detectives have detained and questioned 20 individuals suspected of human trafficking. But the authorities still don't have any solid leads.

AP Wide World

Six undocumented Cubans are towed into a marina in Isla Mujeres on the Yucatán Peninsula.

AP Wide World

Mexican Prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodríguez holds up the autopsy report of Luis Lázaro Lara Morejón, a 30-year-old Cuban-American murdered for his role in a human smuggling ring.

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During a press conference this past December 10, Mexico's attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, said the killings and the trafficking are likely to continue as long as Cubans keep receiving automatic asylum in the States. "It has been legally proved," Medina Mora told reporters, "that people of Cuban origin but who are citizens of the United States are involved, financing these people-smuggling operations, obviously with the complicity of Mexicans."