Elio Henriquez
Correspondent
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, January 19, 2023, p. 8
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chis., Agents from the three levels of government placed 269 Central Americans and Ecuadorians under protection who were being transported crammed into the bed of a tractor-trailer
, including 20 minors who were traveling without the company of an adult. An alleged human trafficker was arrested, reported the state Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC).
He explained that foreigners were detected yesterday morning in the municipality of Chiapa de Corzo, adjacent to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital, at the height of the security and prevention post called C1, near the toll booth.
About two kilometers from that site, on December 9, 2021, 56 undocumented immigrants died and more than 100 were injured when the tractor-trailer that was transporting them overturned.
The action protocol for migrants and human rights was immediately activated, granting them legal, medical, psychological care, food and water, the agency said.
Other sources stated that upon seeing the checkpoint, the driver of the heavy vehicle stopped the march a few meters before and tried to flee, but was stopped by the police.
When opening the doors of the unit box, the agents realized that the foreigners were traveling overcrowded. Some of them got out of the truck and went into the brush, so the uniformed began their search.
Sources from the National Institute of Migration (INM) specified that 261 migrants are Guatemalan, three Salvadoran, three Ecuadorian and two from Honduras.
The SSPC added that the citizens in transit were presented before the immigration authorities; meanwhile, the detained person and the insured vehicle were made available to the corresponding authority in order to clarify what happened and establish responsibilities.
