Migrants continue to cross despite the deployment of agents on the southern border of Mexico
The deployment of 6,000 National Guard agents, in stages, on Mexico’s southern border has not discouraged hundreds of migrants from continuing to cross the dividing line with Guatemala to continue his tour of the country towards the United States.
As scheduled by the Mexican authorities, the deployment of the agents will take place in 13 territorial coordinations in the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Tabasco and this will conclude next Tuesday.
This Saturday Efe verified that agents of the Federal, Military and Naval Police, which make up the National Guard, carry out operations on the border strip in the municipalities of Motozintla, Frontera Comalapa, Comitán, Tapachula, Suchiate, Talismán, all in the state of Chiapas.
The National Guard -a new security force made up of federal police, military and marines- will officially take office in Mexico on June 30.
However, the diplomatic clash with the United States and its threat to impose duty to Mexican products accelerated its presence in the south of the country.
Although the fear of being arrested and deported is large and a constant threat to migrantsmostly Central Americans, they have reconsidered their strategy to cross the Suchiate river, the natural border between Mexico and Guatemala, to avoid the operations that have been installed at strategic points on the border.
“There is a great humanitarian crisis in Central America and many people out of necessity go to seek their lives in the US and pass through our territory.I can tell you that 80% of migrants are Central Americans,” said the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on this day in an act in the state of Chihuahua.
He pointed out that Mexico cannot turn its back or mistreat migrants, nor violate their human rights: “We must not act in a petty way, because that is called xenophobia, rejecting foreigners, we always have to treat all human beings from any part of the world well.”
Boatmen and community members near the border crossing told Efe that Hundreds of people, including families with children, move at night on plastic rafts, tires and wood through the Suchiatea dangerous step in the rainy season as the water level rises and the current is stronger.
With an extension of 1,179 kilometers, the border that Mexico has with Guatemala and Belize integrates 12 official border control points and the migrants have begun to look for irregular passages in the river and the jungle, making it difficult for them to enter the country.
The order that the agents have is detain anyone who does not have documentation that accredits their legal stay in Mexico and in this work they check public and private transport vehicles.
Halfway through the week, the Minister of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, assured that the National Guard would not be like the Border Patrol United States (Border Patrol) on the southern border, and will only support regulate the migratory flow, not to stop it.
But the strong presence of federal, military and marine agents has aroused much suspicion.
For his part, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard defended on Thursday that Mexico complies with a registry of migrants, pointing out that Mexico does not want them to only cross the territory to go to the US, a country with which they have an agreement to reduce migration in exchange not to apply tariffs to their products.
He pointed out that the problem with the United States is due to the fact that the flow of Central Americans grew three times in less than a year.
As a solution to this migration crisis, Mexico has proposed a plan for Central America that already has the support of countries such as Germany and Spain.
According to the agreement reached on June 7 with the United States, Mexico has 45 days to reduce the migratory flow that crosses its territory to the United States or, otherwise, other measures must be considered.
- By Mitzi Fuentes
