Mexico Arrests Three Linked to Honduran Migrant Murder, Assault

Mexican police have arrested three people suspected of the double homicide and assault a group of Honduran caravan migrants carried out this weekend, investigators said Wednesday.

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According to police, two men and a woman are being questioned for violent murder of two Honduran minors and assault of a third after a failed attempt to rob the trio hours after leaving a migrant shelter for minors in Tijuana Saturday.

Honduran officials are working to arrange the survivor’s safe repatriation, urging Mexico to extend the highest level of protection as the investigation continues, an official statement said.

The Central American country offered its condolences and solidarity to family members of the children, assuring authorities were doing their utmost to bring perpetrators to justice.

"We reiterate the call to our compatriots to not risk their lives and that of their relatives to the dangers that the migratory route represents, where they are exposed to be victims of gangs of traffickers," the statement said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, expressed his sympathies for the “regrettable” act of violence to reporters, emphasizing the need for a migration policy which “defends and protects human rights.”

The youths, aged 16 and 17, were found with stab wounds and signs of strangulation early Sunday morning. The third victim, who sustained “serious injury,” is currently being guarded by Mexican authorities.

Alden Rivera, Ambassador of Honduras in Mexico, said, "It is an unfortunate, tragic event."

Over 7,200 Hondurans who embarked on the migrant caravan to the United States have returned to their home country and been provided services and transportation through the national “Safe Return” launched in October, Liza Medrano, director of Protection for the Honduran Migrant of the Honduran Foreign Ministry, said in the statement.