‘CRUEL’ ‘INHUMANE’

Mexican Authorities Violently Break Up Migrant Caravan, Separating Children From Their Parents

‘Some of the officials threw stones to detain people.’

A caravan of about 400 Central Americans, Haitians and some Venezuelans was stopped by Mexican migration and security officials who violently detained many of the migrants while separating children from their parents a day after the migrants set off from southern Mexico for the United States.

Early Sunday morning, Mexico’s National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) surrounded the group on the border of the southern town of Huixtla, according to a Reuters reporter, as some of the migrants fled. The Mexican officials who stopped the group used unnecessary and excessive force, including throwing rocks at detainees, said Maria Martha Ramos, a Honduran woman who witnessed the blockade.

A few days ago, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged undocumented migrants to stay in southern Mexico and asked the U.S. government to assist migrants with employment. This comes ahead of a meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials about fiscal policies scheduled for Thursday that will likely address migration issues.