Migrants begin protest walk north from southern Mexico

The Associated Press reports that, this weekend, around 3,000 migrants set out in as protest procession through southern Mexico to demand the end of detention centers like the one that caught fire in Mexico last month, killing 40 migrants (and here).  The migrants started from Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border. They are headed to Mexico City to demand changes in treatment of migrants. 

“The migrants are mainly from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia. Mexican authorities have used paperwork restrictions and highway checkpoints to bottle up tens of thousands of frustrated migrants in Tapachula, making it hard for them to travel to the U.S. border.”

Mexico in recent months has stepped up immigration enforcement, with observers wondering whether the government has done so in response to policy pressure from the U.S. government.

KJ