On Saturday, January 21st, a raid by agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the National Guard surprised and dissolved a caravan of hundreds of migrants who have been stranded for months waiting for procedures in Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas, before the call that The association Pueblos Libres Sin Fronteras organized to go out in the first caravan of the year.
A dozen vans and two buses arrived at Miguel Hidalgo park to carry out a surprise operation with the aim of breaking up this caravan of migrants that was bound for the United States.
Immigration personnel and Mexican forces randomly chose whom to verify their papers, to see if they were legally in Mexico.
Armed National Guard elements accompanied INM personnel who tried to convince groups of migrants to agree to board the units with the promise of helping them obtain documents to remain in Chiapas.
About a hundred migrants, mostly from Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela, with families, decided not to stay in the central square and not leave in a caravan this Saturday morning.
The Venezuelan migrant Eliezer Antonio de la Cruz, who decided to turn himself in voluntarily, said that the authorities told them that they had been granted a piece of paper to be able to move on and not for deportation.
“We have gone through a lot, we no longer have money or to eat, they have stolen everything from us, we have tried to make this journey to help our families, we trust the words of migration, but they told us no, they are going to deport us,” he concluded.
Source.- El Universal
