Woman Won’t Leave Cancun Airport

The Mexican citizen appears to be reenacting The Terminal

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Gerardo Garcia / REUTERS

Travelers wait in line at the Cancun International Airport, on Feb. 28, 2010.

Back in 2004, Tom Hanks starred in a movie called The Terminal, playing a man who was trapped in a New York City airport terminal after he was denied entry into the United States, but could not return to his native country due to a revolution. More recently, NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been camping out in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for weeks while seeking asylum. Unfortunately, a woman found squatting in a Mexican airport doesn’t have as good of an explanation for her delayed departure.

After arriving on a flight from the United States on June 30, she has been living at the airport in the Mexican resort city of Cancun ever since, officials said. Marcela Silvia Montano Mancera, a Mexican citizen, was spotted sleeping in the terminal, washing up in the airport’s restrooms and eating at the airport restaurants and withdrawing money from an ATM to eat at an airport restaurant. The 45-year-old woman has not caused trouble, but she walks around speaking to herself in Spanish and English, a Federal Police officer said.

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While Hanks’ character in The Terminal couldn’t leave the airport, it appears that Mancera doesn’t want too. According to reports, she is a Mexican citizen with a valid passport and has access to money – she has been seen withdrawing cash from multiple ATMs. Officials are trying to locate the woman’s family but have not had any luck, police said.

Thus far, Mancera has been in the terminal for nine days so far. She has a long way to go, though, if she hopes to best the record set by Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whose true story inspired The Terminal. He lived in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for 17 years. Perhaps Edward Snowden should try it.

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