A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

The four Cuban women kidnapped by the Zetas, the murderous gang linked with Miami mafia rings, would be held by a prostitution network run by this group in Mexican territory, according to reports in the Yucatan daily Por Esto! about the case of the Cuban citizens who claimed to have been caught in the high seas, taken to Puerto Juarez, and tortured by Mexican criminals.

Described as “pretty” by their male companions, the four young women were separated from the group and put on a vehicle that set off for an unknown destination.

“They have not been heard from since, so they are believed to have been forced into prostitution in underground brothels or bars controlled by the criminal cartel”, concludes the newspaper with the highest circulation in the peninsula, famous for its investigations on crime.

On the other hand, Eros Gutiérrez Popo, one of the alleged Cubans rescued by the army and taken to a safe house in Cancun, turned out to be actually one of the torturers pretending to be a victim. “He was in charge of guarding the ‘illegals’, whom he subjected to torture, humiliation and even mutilation,” the report assures.

Reliable sources have it that the other kidnapper, identified as such during the raid to free the hostages, had left Cuba just a few months after serving a one-year prison term in the Island for embezzlement and robbery.

Ditsán Farradaz Ulloa lived in the town of Guïnes, near Havana, where he hijacked boats from a local fishery to flee the country through illegal channels. He and Gutiérrez Popo are members of a clique of Cubans who have United States citenship and are entrusted by the Cuban American mob with the task of aiding the Zetas in their trafficking in Cuban migrants.

Photographs retrieved from a kidnapper’s cellphone show the Cubans being tortured and threatened, clearly visible machete wounds, and even one Zeta member putting a gun in one of the prisoner’s mouths. The group had sent them to relatives in Cuba and demanded 10,000 dollars a head for their release.

A military operation last July to rescue Taimy Gonzalez, a young Cuban woman the Zetas had retained even after her family had already paid a twelve-thousand-dollar ransom, confirmed the kidnappers’ connection to the Cuban American mafia.

Among the criminals of Cuban origin arrested at the time were: José Luis Hernández Alonso, 48, from Florida; Jordy Gutiérrez Piñeros, 29, currently living at Coast Street 5445, Naples, Florida; Gil Hernández Castro, 71, 33177 F. Pinekey Ave., Florida; Carmen Rives Rives, 47, 1749 South Way 42, Terra, Florida; and Julio Rives Rives, 42, 1227 Fuller Lane, Naples, Florida.

These mobsters are suspected of working on a regular basis in open complicity with local authorities, who even offer to stand guard over the victims and then “turn a blind eye” in exchange for money.

The kidnapping operation discovered in the last few days was preceded by many others, the investigation reveals, but most victims remain silent over their ordeal out of sheer terror.

Taimy Gonzalez’s father admitted to the state assistant district attorney’s office that he had paid the ransom for his daughter prior to her arrival in Miami, Florida, where she was taken by a “tall, elderly white-haired” woman who introduced herself as “Mami”. However, the Zetas charged Mr. Gonzalez an additional one million pesos before they freed the young girl and let her reach the U.S. border.

In Miami, the Cuban American mafia and their spokespersons in the Congress take every opportunity to uphold the Cuban Adjustment Act, which fuels many profitable Mexico-bound human trafficking operations.

Potential migrants whom the U.S. deny a travel visa go to Mexico instead to try and cross the U.S. border, where pursuant to the said legislation they are automatically granted asylum, whereas Mexicans and other Central Americans, unprotected by any similar legislation, die by the dozens while attempting to reach United States territory in search of jobs.

Initially the criminal mercenary army for Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, the Zetas also traffic in Hondurans, Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Dominicans, Haitians and even Asians.