Tapachula Chiapas Friday April 1, 2022
Tijuana. -Around more than 500 migrants left the bicentennial park on Friday, April 1 with the aim of seeking a solution due to the lack of attention by the National Immigration Institute (INAMI). The corporation has said that it is serving the migrant community and is delivering between 400 to 800 humanitarian visas or migratory forms daily, but the facts show the opposite. Early Friday morning, more than 500 migrants, including children, women and families, left in a march called “Viacrucis Migrante” This march was organized by the human rights defender and director of the Center for Human Dignification (NGO) Luis Garcia Villagran , who within a period of 8 days requested protection from the federal authorities so that the migrants would not be interrupted on their journey to the outskirts of the state of Chiapas.
“This march is being carried out due to ineffectiveness through the National Immigration Institute, they persecute poor migrants, but those who do have money are sheltered in Playa Linda where they are charged exorbitant amounts so that they can reach the northern border, he said. ”
Many of the migrants already have a humanitarian visa and have been spending the night for weeks in the bicentennial park. A migrant from Venezuela who already has her documents tells us the reason why she joined the Viacrucis Migrante.
“It is not only the fact that we do not have money to move, but we are afraid to leave since we know that (INAMI) is going to intercept us and is going to want to bribe us to be able to continue and if we do not have money they break our migratory form and there they will return us to the prison of the 21st century, we are afraid to go alone “.
At the inspection point known as “Viva Mexico” elements of the National Guard with agents from (INAMI) were already waiting for the migrants to stop their passage. They tried to start a dialogue, but the desperation due to the lack of access by the authorities turned into a very violent confrontation, in which the agents tried to detain families, infants, women and men with “punches, pushes and kicks”. The confrontation ended in the arrest of 94 migrants who were transferred to the migratory station in Oaxaca where they will be given the document in a migratory form or humanitarian visa.
The rest of the caravan advanced and took refuge in the municipality of Alvaro Obregon where they are sheltered by a Catholic church, waiting for a dialogue with the authorities. This is the first caravan in the 2022 cycle.
