Mexico: clash between migrants and military leaves one injured and 25 detained in Chiapas

At least one injured and 25 detainees left this Thursday a confrontation with blows between the military and migrants who are advancing in a caravan towards Mexico City to demand speed in their regularization procedures, an official source reported.

The crash occurred on a highway 20 kilometers from the town of Pijijiapan (Chiapas state, south) and left a uniformed man injured, in addition to the arrest of 25 foreigners, a security source told AFP who requested anonymity.

The National Guard was not immediately available to comment on the incident, which occurred four days after members of that force killed two Cuban migrants at a checkpoint in Chiapas.

On Sunday, agents of the National Guard They shot at a truck that was transporting several migrants, killing the two Cubans. According to the National Guard, the driver ignored an order to stop and “tried to ram” the officers at the checkpoint.

The organizers of the march assured that the deceased were part of their mobilization, which brings together several hundred people, most of them of Central American origin.

“The National Guard repressed us three or four times, there were already chingadazos (blows)”, Mexican activist Luis García Villagrán, one of the leaders of the caravan, which left Chiapas on October 23, told the press.

García Villagrán explained that the skirmish broke out when the agents began to detain women and children who were behind the march.

“Two or three of the National Guard were thrown on the floor and I brought a severely beaten migrant, but he does not want to be hospitalized for fear”, added.

This is the second operation by the security forces in their attempt to stop the migrants. The first occurred when the caravan left the city of Tapachula, in Chiapas, where the protesters broke through a fence by the authorities.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered those involved to be made available to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Chiapas it is the gateway for tens of thousands of migrants, especially Central Americans and Haitians, who are fleeing violence and poverty in their countries and trying to reach the United States. This flow has accelerated during 2021.

Along the way, many are victims of criminal organizations and abuse by Mexican authorities.

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