Hundreds of Migrants Riot to Attempt Escape at Mexican Detention Facility
Hundreds of Migrants Riot to Attempt Escape at Mexican Detention Facility
March 25, 2020
Jason Pena
A migrant-detention facility in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas experienced a series of riots committed by hundreds of foreign nationals.
The suspension of deportation flights to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and other countries has caused migrant detention facilities in southern Mexico to prolong the stay of detained aliens.
Since the postponement of repatriation flights, migrants have grown impatient over remaining in the detention facility for longer than a week. Foreign nationals were also uneasy over the possibility of contracting the coronavirus.
The detention center currently houses more than 800 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Congo, Angola, and other nations.
Prior to the riots, relatives of the arrested migrants expressed concern about possible riots occurring due to congested space conditions and panic over the coronavirus.
An anonymous kitchen employee explained the events surrounding the physical altercations and the attempted escape:
They made their commotion, they started burning their mattresses during dinnertime. The National Guard arrived around six in the afternoon. The mutiny occurred because the migrants were not quickly released, they have been here for more than four days without being sent back to their countries of origin. No trucks have come or gone because of the coronavirus.
He said of the second riot: "Later on, a Salvadoran migrant assaulted a federal agent, half an hour ago the commotion was made again."
According to the employee, the Mexican national guard has not been deployed to the detention facility since a group of Haitians attempted to riot four months ago.
Authorities were able to control the regain control using physical force to subdue and arrest belligerent migrants.
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