MEXICO CITY: When Cuban President Raul Castro arrives for a visit here Thursday, hundreds of his compatriots will have crossed Mexico's southern border in a migration wave headed to the United States.
Castro and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto are expected to discuss the issue when they meet in the eastern city of Merida on Friday, in their latest effort to relaunch ties strained under previous governments.
More than 1,500 Cubans reached Mexico in October alone, the latest arrivals in a recent surge that has "surprised" the authorities, Mario Madrazo, a senior official at the National Migration Institute, told AFP.
A higher number are leaving the communist-led island over fears that the US-Cuba diplomatic detente will lead to an end to the special treatment of Cuban migrants, who get automatic residency permits when they set foot in the United States.
Many are now choosing a long land route through several Latin American nations, rather than the risky trip across the shark-infested Florida Straits.
Cubans young and old, with or without children, have flooded the migration center in the town of Tapachula, in southern Chiapas state, after crossing a river from Guatemala -- a route taken by Central Americans for years.
Overall, 27,296 Cubans have reached the United States during the first nine months of the 2015 fiscal year, up 78 percent from the same period last year, according to the Pew Research Center, citing official figures.
Two-thirds of them, or 18,397, arrived through Laredo, a Texas city bordering the Mexican state of Tamaulipas -- 66 percent more than last year.
Mexican government figures show a similar trend, with nearly 6,500 Cubans taken to migration centers in the first nine months of this year, triple the number for the 12 months of 2014.
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