‘I HAD TO PLAY DEAD’

Cleon Harden, the St Catherine man who was engaged in a major brawl with Mexican authorities at the Cancún International Airport in late December and was subsequently sent back to the island, says he went to the North American country for a month-long vacation.

In the same breath, he denied travelling to Mexico as part of a human-smuggling ring to get to the United States via its land border.

In a Gleaner interview on Thursday, Harden said that he acquired US$3,000 and travelled on December 21 to Panama, where he spent two nights before heading to the Spanish-speaking country.

He said that on arrival in Mexico on December 23, his passport was confiscated and he was asked to remain in a holding room with others.

He insisted that he provided relevant documents for his vacation and showed that he had no issues travelling through Panama, but was still denied entry into Mexico.

“One of them tell me to go over to the interrogation room. While I over there, a lot of people over there, and they called me out and say, ‘Jamaican, you going back home’. So, from there, me get up and me nuh know what happened,” he said from his house in Southboro, Portmore.

“Me stand up and me just lose me cool. When me stomp the glass, them start fling chair, so me stomp out two more,” he added.

In a video of the incident that has been widely circulated on social media, Harden was seen with a piece of broken glass, which he used to ward off authorities while demanding his passport.

He retrieved the travel document and his bag and attempted to leave the area.

CORNERED

But when the minute-and-a-half-long video ended, Harden said that the authorities called in reinforcement and he was cornered by armed policemen and soldiers, who reportedly warned him to drop the piece of glass or they would shoot him.

“When me put down the glass, dem jump pon me and dem start to kick me up, handcuff me, and put me in the cell. Dem kick me up inna mi head and mi side. Mi affi play dead fi dem stop. Di next day, dem come back, a di said thing dem do,” Harden claimed, alleging that he was “tortured”.

He said that, on December 24, Mexican authorities returned to his cell where he was again beaten before being informed that he would be sent home.

He returned to Jamaica on Christmas Day in a wheelchair, he said, because he was unable to walk.

Harden told The Gleaner that he has had to self-medicate to ease his pain stemming from the incident.

He denied that he was on his way to the US-Mexico border, to which hundreds of Jamaicans reportedly travel for illegal entry into the US.

A visitor’s visa is not required for Jamaicans travelling to Mexico.

“I don’t know anything about that,” he said of the human-smuggling ring, “I want some justice for this thing because them beat me up and, from I come here, I don’t even get to go to hospital.”

He told The Gleaner that his plans were to remain in Cancún on a solo vacation for a month before returning to the island.

He further said that he had not travelled for 11 years, having been sent back from the United Kingdom where his wife and son reside.

A similar incident occurred there, he said, after he was accosted while on a walk and held in detention.

He said that he got impatient with the process and demanded to be sent back to Jamaica, a decision he now regrets.

The Gleaner contacted Jamaica’s ambassador to Mexico, Sharon Saunders, who described the incident as “very disturbing”.

Saunders said that she was made aware of the video on January 4 and that the embassy “immediately” began its investigation.

She said that Harden landed in Mexico, “claiming” to be a tourist, but his “inappropriate behaviour, disrespect to authority and inconsistencies” in his first interview warranted a second interview.

The ambassador said that, during the second interview, Harden responded in an “inappropriate and violent manner” and was at that time informed that he would not be granted entry into Mexico.

“Due to the inconsistencies in both interviews, Mexican Immigration deemed him to not be a genuine tourist. This upset the Jamaican, who then became extremely violent, breaking a glass door repeatedly and using a piece of broken glass as a weapon to threaten immigration staff and passengers who were also in the second review room and at the immigration office.

“It should be noted that the Jamaican physically harmed a US Customs and Border Protection agent in the airport,” Saunders said in an emailed response to The Gleaner.

She said that Harden tried to escape the airport, but was prevented from doing so by Federal Immigration and National Guard agents.

“He eventually was subdued and cooperated and was boarded on a Copa flight from Mexico to Panama on 24th December 2022. He overnighted in Panama and travelled back to Jamaica on 25th December 2022,” Saunders said.

The Mexican government has toughened immigration processes for incoming Jamaicans amid growing concerns over the human-smuggling corridor to the US.

The development has caused increased scrutiny of travellers on bona fide business or leisure trips, as Jamaicans with criminal records or other red flags pay thousands of US dollars for safe passage across the border from Mexico into the US.

Middlemen charge up to J$300,000 a head.

Panama is usually the first port of call of the human-smuggling scheme.

There was a more than 60 per cent surge in travel between Jamaica and Mexico in 2021. Data trends suggested that approximately 12,000 Jamaicans travelled to Mexico in 2022.

US President Joe Biden is expected to visit the border next week on his way to Mexico.

He has announced a new plan to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month, in a bid to tackle the border crisis.

The new policy will apply to asylum seekers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com