Migrants detained by Mexican police
PIJIJIAPAN: Mexican police and immigration agents detained hundreds of Central American migrants yesterday in the largest single raid on a migrant caravan since the groups started moving through the country last year.
Police targeted isolated groups at the tail end of a caravan of about 3000 migrants who were making their way through the southern state of Chiapas with hopes of reaching the United States border.
As the migrants gathered under spots of shade in the burning heat outside the city of Pijijiapan, federal police and agents passed by in patrol trucks and vans and forcibly wrestled women, men and children into the vehicles.
The migrants were driven to buses, presumably for transportation to an immigration station for deportation processing. As many as 500 migrants might have been picked up in the raid, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.
Clothes, shoes, suitcases and strollers littered the scene after the migrants were taken away. Kevin Escobar, a 27yearold from Honduras, was one of about 500 migrants who fled on to private property to avoid immigration agents. He vowed he would never return to his hometown of San Pedro Sula, saying: ‘‘The gangs are kidnapping everyone back there.’’
Agents had encouraged groups of migrants that separated from the bulk of the caravan to rest after some seven hours on the road. When the migrants regrouped to continue, they were detained. Agents positioned themselves at the head of the group and at the back. Some people in civilian clothing appeared to be participating in the detentions.
After seeing what happened, some migrants began walking in dense groups and picked up stones and sticks.
Officials from the National Human Rights Commission watched from a distance.
‘‘We are documenting what is happening,’’ said Jesos Salvador Quintana, a commission official.
‘‘We cannot tell authorities in charge what to do, but yes, we are documenting and we will investigate.’’