TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 300 migrants walked out of this southern Mexican city Wednesday, hoping to move north, even as the activist who helped organize them remained in police custody over allegations of human trafficking.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Luis García Villagrán, the leader of a local nongovernmental organization arrested Tuesday in Tapachula, “is not an activist.” She said he was tied to trafficking people, “that is the crime.”
Sheinbaum said Wednesday during her daily news briefing that there had been an arrest order pending for García Villagrán for years. It was unknown why the outspoken and very public figure hadn’t been arrested earlier.
The group of migrants that left Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, earlier Wednesday was small in comparison to migrant caravans in years past. There has been very little movement of migrants in public since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, though migration numbers had been falling even prior to that.
Those walking Wednesday said their goal was not reaching the United States, but rather central Mexico. They complained that they had been waiting for months to legalize their status or receive asylum.
In recent years, the Mexican government has worked to contain migrants in southern Mexico — far from the border with the United States. At times, this strategy has swollen migrant numbers in Tapachula until hundreds set out walking in protest. Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state and migrants complain there is little work or available housing.
Johnny López of Ecuador walked with his wife and three children, including a baby born in Tapachula while they awaited a determination on their asylum application, which was eventually rejected. Now they planned to travel to Mexico City where López hoped to find work to support his family.
The migrants were escorted by immigration agents, police, marines and paramedics.
Heyman Vázquez, a Catholic priest, also accompanied them. He called García Villagran’s arrest “unjust.”
Vázquez said it showed the Mexican government’s concern over migrant caravans, which he said would be resolved by making it easier for migrants to legalize their immigration status.
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