Tapachula (Mexico), January 21 (EFE).- Members of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the Mexican National Guard dispersed this Saturday hundreds of migrants who had been stuck for months waiting for procedures in Tapachula, in the southern state. Chiapas and that they were going to go on the first caravan of the year.
The Mexican authorities arrived at Miguel Hidalgo Park and broke up this caravan of migrants destined for the United States, which was called by the association Pueblos Libres Sin Fronteras to leave today.
A dozen vans and two buses arrived at the square for the surprise operation, in which a contingent of migrant troops and Mexican forces randomly chose who to check their papers to see if they were in Mexico legally.
Armed National Guard members accompanied INM personnel who tried to convince groups of migrants to agree to get into the vehicles and promised to help them obtain documents to stay in Chiapas.
About a hundred migrants – mostly from Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela – along with their families decided not to stay in the central square and go in the caravan this Saturday morning.
Eliezer Antonio de la Cruz, a Venezuelan migrant who decided to surrender voluntarily, said authorities told him to give them a paper so they could move, not face deportation.
“We have been through a lot, we have no money and no food, everything has been stolen from us, we tried to make this trip to help our families, we trust the words of immigration, they told us they are not there. is going to deport us,” he told EFE.
A migrant from Venezuela, Frances Mendez, who is traveling with her two daughters and her husband, decided to leave because they want to do everything right and legally, commenting that they have the process of the Mexican Commission for the Assistance of Refugees (COMAR). ) which allows you to get a visa for humanitarian reasons.
“They told us they are going to help us because I went to re-apply today so they could update us and they told us we couldn’t do it anymore and now they say yes,” he told EFE.
Migrants left in the park have been assured that immigration efforts are futile as they are taken to an immigration station and given permission only to stay in the city or cross the southern border when they wish to continue onward. to the United States.
Source: El Diario
