Mezcalapa, (Mexico)
Members of the Mexican National Guard and the National Migration Institute (INM) on Saturday intercepted 156 Central American migrants traveling huddled in a “tractor truck” on the federal highway in Chiapas, a state on the southern border.
Migration authorities reported that 147 Guatemalans and nine Hondurans were traveling in piles, in a trailer coupled to a redilas semi-trailer. the municipality of Mezcalapa, which is located on the Grijalva river basin.
The operation, which officials called a “rescue,” was conducted on Les Road Choapas-Ocozocoautla, where the driver of the truck tried to evade the officers when they asked him to stop his march, according to the elements of the National Guard.
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Therefore, federal agents maneuvered to get meters later, where two people got out of the vehicle and fled, although in the end one of them was intercepted.
As officers approached the unit to conduct a security inspection they heard voices of help in the cargo area and observed that dozens of vehicles were traveling in the cabin. people in overcrowded conditions.
The Central Americans showed signs of dehydration, but once they were provided with water and received medical attention, the migration agents transferred them to the INM facilities.
Here they could receive consular assistance, but after proving their nationality the authorities announced their deportation to their countries in a process they call “assisted return”.
The arrest of the Central Americans comes on the day that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced that on Monday he will raise in the virtual meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, an agreement for workers to migrate to this American country of legal form.
“We are going to deal with this issue. And it is: ‘let’s see, you will need to grow, to produce, Mexican and Central American workers’, we are better ordering the migratory flow, legalizing it to guarantee workers not to risk their lives , that human rights be protected, “he said.
Although López Obrador boasted of “a very good” relationship with Donald Trump and was one of the last to congratulate Biden, the Mexican has applauded Washington’s new migration policies, such as the end of the border wall and the program. ” Stay in Mexico “(Remain in Mexico).
The Mexican president has called on Washington for development cooperation in Central and southern Mexico, where he deployed the National Guard, a military police force, to contain Central American migrants. after Trump’s pressure.