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Mexican town stands up for illegal immigrants
October 25th, 2008 @ 9:58am
By TRACI CARL
Associated Press Writer

RAFAEL LARA GRAJALES, Mexico (AP) - The Sunday afternoon calm was broken by shouts from the small, mission-style house, watched over by a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Bloodied hands punched through the windows. The glass shattered. Suddenly, dozens of people were clambering over the back wall and jumping onto the street below.

Some dropped into the patios of adjoining houses. Most were dressed only in tattered underwear, their bodies marred by dark bruises and angry burns. One man had the handle of a knife poking from his abdomen.

The men and women ran up to shocked townsfolk and pleaded in their Central American accents: We were kidnapped. The local police are involved. Please help.

For a moment, the people of this small Mexican migrant town hesitated. It would be easier, and certainly safer, to go back inside and let the foreigners hide in the surrounding cornfields of this high mountain valley outside Puebla.

But then they thought of their own relatives living illegally in the U.S. They thought of the times they had fallen victim to government and police corruption, and of the growing crime and violence throughout Mexico.

Then, in an act that defied years of resignation in the face of immigrant abuse, they got on cell phones and bullhorns to mobilize the entire town. And in doing so, they launched a powerful challenge to Mexico's long tradition of complaining about treatment of Mexican migrants in the United States, while treating Central American migrants at home even worse.

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Tens of thousands of Central American migrants pass through Mexico every year on their way to the U.S., but the journey is perilous. Only a handful reach the U.S. border without being robbed, beaten or raped, either by thieves or by Mexican officials. And many cling to trains for a free ride north, only to fall off and lose limbs or worse.

Rafael Lara Grajales is a waystation on the route, a place to change trains and beg for food or spare change during the hourlong layover. Townspeople rarely turn the migrants down, handing over a few pesos or a leftover taco.

"They come by and ask for a bit of bread," said Luis Campos, 15. "They are very respectful. They ask for help and continue on their way."

The town's underlying sympathy for the migrants exploded into full-blown activism when bruised and broken people began spilling out of the house at No. 4 East St. on Oct. 12.

Many of the more than 60 people inside later said they had been picked up by police, who turned them over to kidnappers. They were then crammed into the house, robbed of their money and belongings and forced to strip off their clothes.

Evis Casco, a Honduran, said he saw the kidnappers pay a police officer $100 for him. He said his captors stabbed his hand repeatedly as they demanded telephone numbers of family members in the U.S. and Central America.

Migrants who refused said they were beaten or burned. Sometimes, the kidnappers held flames to their genitals to make them talk. When they gave in, their family received ransom calls demanding payments of up to $5,000 for their release, they said.

Many had been held for days, and few were allowed to leave the house even when ransoms were paid, migrants said. Rumors circulated among the group that the few who did leave were killed.

By the afternoon of Oct. 12, anger and fear boiled over into a rebellion. The migrants turned on the two captors present, who they said stabbed a man and then fled. The man with a knife in his belly disappeared. Some think he hopped another train, while others worry he died in a nearby field.

After spilling over the walls, the migrants begged for help. A few residents of Rafael Lara Grajales ran to the main square, where they interrupted a Columbus Day celebration.

Dozens of townspeople joined them, pulling old clothes from their closets for the nearly naked migrants. Others handed out food and bandaged bloody hands. They promised to make sure the two dozen migrants who didn't flee stayed safe.

Police soon arrived. They arrested the two suspected kidnappers, who had been cornered in an empty lot. Two alleged female accomplices staying at a local hotel were also taken into custody.

Police loaded the two women onto a van, then moved to put the migrants in with them, witnesses said. But the crowd was outraged. They feared police were involved in the kidnapping and were taking the migrants away to kill them, according to Elizabeth Bautista, who watched from a distance with her son.

The crowd began shouting at the migrants not to board the bus: "Don't get on! You aren't safe!" The migrants panicked and began crawling out the windows. Police grabbed them and shoved them back in.

One man with a bullhorn called more townspeople to come to their aid. The crowd quickly swelled to hundreds.

A few people hurled rocks at the van, and the multitude began pushing against riot police surrounding City Hall, witnesses said. "Run! Get away!" people in the crowd shouted at the migrants. "You aren't safe!"

The migrants scattered through the streets and hid in houses. Some in the crowd set two patrol pickups aflame. A few slammed the burning hulk of an all-terrain motorcycle into the door of City Hall, trapping police who broke down a door and part of a concrete wall to escape.

Tear gas was fired. Many scattered. Police arrested eight people, including two teenagers and Bautista's brother Jairzinho, who she said was just trying to run away. They face charges of property damage and disturbing the public.

Finally, federal police rolled in and began going door to door to look for the migrants.

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In the end, they rounded up 21 migrants and took them into custody for deportation. Of those, 15 have been deported. Six others are being held and will serve as witnesses to the events of Oct. 12.

State prosecutor Rodolfo Igor Archundia said officials have cleared the five police officers on duty Oct. 12, but arrest warrants have been issued for four other officers who were off that day. They are accused of kidnapping and smuggling people.

State human rights officials said they began receiving reports of police abuse of migrants in Rafael Lara Grajales as far back as March. Mayor Juan Abundio Torres dismissed the accusations of corruption and said the protest was instigated by his political opponents.

The National Human Rights Commission is investigating how the police and government handled the case. The commission has called on state and federal officials across Mexico to do more amid rising reports of kidnapped Central American immigrants.

The four alleged kidnappers face federal charges of kidnapping and human smuggling and are being held in Puebla.

For resident Mariana Solis, the town should serve as a model throughout Mexico and beyond. She said Americans who turn a blind eye to migrant abuse in the U.S. should take heed.

"We all have people in the U.S., and we don't want the same thing to happen to them," she said.

Days after the protest, the house where the migrants were kept stood empty, its door locked and windows agape. Flies buzzed past glittering bits of glass. The living room floor was littered with clothes, backpacks, blankets and trash.

A smattering of migrants continue to hide with families in town, including a man who refused to give his name for fear of being found. Dressed in a Walnut Springs Girls Basketball T-shirt and a New York Yankees ski cap, he said he was too scared to continue his trip to Kentucky _ and too scared to turn around and try to make it home.

"I don't trust the police or anyone now," he said. "I'm in the middle of Mexico, and there is danger everywhere."

Townspeople are afraid too. They worry about the police, and about rumors that other kidnappers will come back to punish them for their actions.

As foreign journalists walked through the town, a local radio announcer warned residents not to talk to them.

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Associated Press writer Edmundo Velazquez contributed to this report.

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