Mexico Detains 25 Migrants After Skirmishes

Tuxtla Guti�rrez, Mexico, Nov 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2021 ) :Twenty-five migrants traveling in a caravan through southern Mexico seeking refugee status were detained on Thursday after minor clashes with security forces, a security source said.

A member of the security forces was injured in the incident on a highway in the state of Chiapas, according to the source, who did not want to be named.

Mexican activist Luis Garcia Villagran, one of the leaders of the caravan, said the skirmishes broke out after agents began to detain women and children straggling behind the main group.

"Two or three of the National Guards were thrown to the floor and I helped a severely beaten migrant, but he is afraid to be hospitalized," Garcia Villagran said.

There was no immediate comment from the National Guard about the incident, which comes days after its agents killed two Cuban migrants in Chiapas on Sunday.

The Guard said its troops had opened fire after the driver of a pick-up truck in which the migrants were traveling ignored an order to stop and tried to ram a patrol vehicle.

Leaders of the migrant caravan marching towards Mexico City said the foreigners had been part of their group but decided to break off due to rumors of raids by the authorities.

The shooting fanned tensions between the authorities and the roughly 1,000 migrants who set off on foot from the southern city of Tapachula on October 23.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that he had ordered the troops who opened fire to be brought to justice because their actions were unjustified.

In recent months, tens of thousands of US-bound migrants fleeing poverty and violence have arrived in Mexico, where they risk exploitation by criminals and abuses by authorities.