Indigenous Mexicans tortured in migrant crackdown win public apology

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Indigenous Mexicans tortured in migrant crackdown win public apology

• Quartet were accused of being undocumented Guatemalans
• Immigration agents handed out beatings and electric shocks

Nina Lakhani
Thu 7 Nov 2019 19.32 GMT
Last modified on Thu 7 Nov 2019 21.29 GMT

Four indigenous Mexicans who were illegally detained and abused by immigration agents during a US-backed crackdown have received a rare public apology by the Mexican government for the ordeal.

The group were on a bus of seasonal farmhands in central Mexico when apprehended in 2015 by immigration agents who targeted them because of their physical features, clothes and limited Spanish.

The agents accused the four of being undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, but they were indigenous Tzeltal Mayans from the poor state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, where 25% of the population speak an indigenous language.

Shortly after the ordeal, the Guardian revealed that three of the four – siblings aged 15 to 24 – were taken to a detention centre in Querétaro in central Mexico and held for eight days. One of them, then aged 18, was beaten and given electric shocks until he agreed to sign a deportation document admitting they were Guatemalan, even though he cannot read or write.

The siblings narrowly avoided being expelled from their home country after the fourth – the older sister’s boyfriend – alerted a human rights organization.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/07/mexico-indigenous-tzeltal-mayans-chiapas-apology

[Judi Lynn]

1. Unforgivable. Shame on the murderous clowns. n/t