Two Mexican Agents Who Attacked Migrants Were Suspended

On Monday, Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) suspended two federal agents for their misconduct during an operation to control a migrant caravan that left the city of Tapachula on Saturday.

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Videos posted on social networks showed the moment when one officer violently threw a Central American migrant to the ground and then the other officer kicked him in the face.

The National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) asked federal and local authorities to implement precautionary measures to protect the migrant caravan which is transiting through the state of Chiapas. Human rights defenders documented attacks by INM and National Guard agents against migrants, who were prevented from advancing through Mexican territory to the United States.

The Commission also asked the INM to respect the "principle of non-refoulement" and speed up the procedures for the regularization of migrants.

The tweet reads, "Members of the INM and the National Guard beat up Central American migrants who entered Mexico through Tapachula in Chiapas."

"Conduct that deviates from the protocols and policies for protecting migrant's human rights will not be tolerated," the INM vowed.

On Monday, some 500 agents from the INM, the Army and the National Guard partially dismantled a caravan of some 700 Central American migrants that left on Saturday from the municipality of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. This same day, however, a new caravan with some 600 Central American migrants also departed from Tapachula.

On Sunday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) affirmed that his administration will continue to "contain" the migration but asked the United States for "substantive solutions."