Migrant Caravan Advances in Mexico Despite Threats

Members of the March for Peace, Justice and for the Freedom of Migrants that last Saturday left Tapachula, state of Chiapas (bordering Guatemala) with the intention of reaching Mexico City, demanded this Monday that the National Institute of Migration (INM) allow them to march freely through Mexican soil and reach the northern border.

The Salvadoran Eduardo Ángel Polanco denounced to local media that INM agents detained migrants who carry judicial permission to regularize their situation, ripped apart this legal document and sent them to a jail in Tapachula.

RELATED:

Migrant Caravan Continues Its Way Towards Mexico City

He added that he and his family are in the international caravan of migrants, whose purpose is to reach the U.S. border once they are granted safe-passage in Mexico City to avoid being victims of such treatment.

In his opinion, the INM is acting without respect for the federal judges who issued these permits, let alone for the law or their human rights.

For his part, the director of the non-governmental organization Centro de Dignificación Humana, Luis García Villagrán, denounced that INM officials are pursuing the caravan and detaining migrants who are stragglers, primarily women and children.

He confirmed that the INM detained this Sunday six foreigners who "have an asylum card" and "have the recognition of the Mexican Commission of Aid to Refugees (Comar)."

"Today, migrants in a caravan left the town of Álvaro Obregón, municipality of Tapachula, where they spent the night, on their way to Huehuetán. A few moments ago they settled in the park. Visitors from the @CEDHChiapas accompany the mobilization, so far without incident."

He specified that of the more than 3,000 members of the caravan, the majority from Central America, around 2,000 "have documents, that is to say, Comar recognizes them, and in the worst cases they have already made their request, but they are not being respected."

The international caravan, the fifth formed this year, advances this Monday towards the municipality of Huixtla, in Chiapas.

Its members hope to be attended by Comar and INM. According to local media, some have been requesting migratory status for two years and others for several weeks.

In protest against the authorities' delay, they decided to organize the March for Peace, Justice and the Freedom of Migrants, which does not have a precise date to reach Mexico City.