50 dancers arrested in INM raid in Cancun Hotel Zone

Cancun, Q.R. — During an INM raid in the Cancun Hotel Zone, 50 women were taken into custody by immigration officers.

The raid occurred on Saturday night in the Cancun Hotel Zone when officers from the Instituto Nacional de Migración found 50 female dancers that were said to have been in the country illegally and/or working illegally.

The women, who were of Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, Panama and El Salvador nationalities, were removed from several different clubs in the Cancun Hotel Zone.

Some of the women have filed an Amparo for illegal deprivation of liberty and violation of their human rights. Their lawyer, José Landeta Villanueva, said that his defendants were in the country as tourists when they were arrested by the Fiscalía General of the República and the Instituto Nacional de Migración.

However, INM officials claim some of the women were working illegally since being granted a tourist visa to enter Mexico does not grant working status. At the time of their arrest, the women were relocated to the INM office in Chetumal, however, after four days, 25 of the women were transferred to INM in Mérida.

Landeta Villanueva confirmed that an Amparo suit has been filed for the violation of human rights and individual guarantees since the sub-delegate of the migration station in Chetumal, Adriana Pavón, has not allowed the women access to the Comisión de los Derechos Humanos.

On Saturday, the Instituto Nacional de Migración en Cancún carried out an operation in the hotel zone of Cancun where they arrested 50 women from Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, Panama and El Salvador, whom they reported being in the country illegally, working as dancers in different clubs.