TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — On Christmas Eve 2024, Elianis Caridad Morejón Pérez, a young Cuban woman, told her mother by phone that she had put on a life jacket and was boarding a boat to travel from southern Mexico toward the United States. It was her final message from San José El Hueyate, a town in the state of Chiapas, before disappearing alongside 39 other migrants from Cuba, Honduras and Ecuador while traveling a maritime route known as one of the most dangerous paths used by smugglers .