Mexican authorities intercepted 65 Central American migrants, 41 of them Nicaraguans, who were traveling in a crowded trailer in the northern state of Coahuila, which borders the United States.
“The National Institute of Migration (INM) of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob) last night rescued 65 migrants crowded inside the dry box of a trailer that was traveling on Highway 57 Matehuala-Monterrey,” the institute reported this Saturday in a statement.
Of the 65 migrants captured, 41 people are from Nicaragua, 15 from Honduras, four from El Salvador, 2 from Guatemala and 3 of “presumably Mexican nationality,” the INM detailed. The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) also participated in the operation.
#Bulletin ? INM #Coahuila Y @FGRMexico, rescued 65 migrants last night in the box of a trailer: 41 of #Nicaragua, 15 of #Honduras, 4 of #The Savior, 2 of #Guatemala and 3 presumed Mexicans; They were traveling on Highway 57 Matehuala-Monterrey. https://t.co/pwLjSRQUk6 pic.twitter.com/ULWDElQXl5
— INM (@INAMI_mx) January 22, 2022
“People from Central American nations were taken to immigration headquarters to start the corresponding administrative process. The other three, apparently of Mexican origin, were channeled to the FGR to determine their legal status,” explained the INM.
The smuggling of migrants in trailers has become a usual modus operandi in Mexico.
Transferred in a pirate ambulance
The INM also discovered this Saturday 28 Nicaraguan migrants who were traveling crowded in a pirate ambulance that left Oaxaca, a state in the south of the country.
The INM carried out an operation with the National Guard (GN) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to intercept the vehicle, which claimed to belong to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).
“Today, in Jalapa del Marqués, the INM in Oaxaca, the GN and the FGR, identified 28 Nicaraguan people in an apocryphal ambulance: 5 men, 14 women and 9 NNA (unaccompanied children),” the migration agency said in a message shared with the media.
The agency, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), added that “the driver, who posed as an employee of the health sector, was made available to the Public Ministry (MP)”.
#Today, in Jalapa del Marques, @INAMI_mx #Oaxaca, @GN_MEXICO_ Y @FGRMexico, they identified 28 Nicaraguan people in an apocryphal ambulance ?? -5 men, 14 women and 9 #NNA-; the driver, who pretended to be an employee of the health sector, was placed at the disposal of the MP. pic.twitter.com/2DcsN1wA2R
— INM (@INAMI_mx) January 23, 2022
The institute thus denied the rumors on social networks that accused an official vehicle and an IMSS employee of transporting the migrants.
“The detained vehicle was cloned and, therefore, the institution, through its legal area, will file the corresponding complaint,” he assured.
This is not the first time that migrant smugglers have used a false ambulance to transport undocumented immigrants, as a similar event also occurred last November, when the authorities intercepted 36 people crowded into a pirate vehicle in Tabasco.
The events reflect the record flow of people to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.
Mexico intercepted more than 252,000 undocumented people from January to November and deported more than 100,000 in the same period, figures not seen in nearly 15 years, according to the Migration Policy Unit of the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
Mexican authorities have been criticized for deploying more than 20,000 members of the Armed Forces to the northern and southern borders to contain migrants.
“The INM endorses its commitment to safe, orderly and regular migration, with full respect for rights and safeguarding the rights of people in the context of mobility through national territory,” the agency said this Saturday.
