Hundreds of migrants, including women, children, and families, were pulled from tents by armed police officers who cleared a makeshift camp stretched for blocks in Downtown Juárez.
The camp was near the National Migration Institute detention center, where 40 men were killed in a March 28 fire.
The migrants protested — some by quietly placing their hands on their heads and others by angrily questioning why evicting them from the city sidewalks was necessary.
The shelter was used largely by Venezuelan migrants, but people from Colombia and Guatemala also sheltered in the makeshift camp.
The officers cleared the camp, which was used by about 300 migrants, a few hours early Tuesday, May 23. They tore down tents surrounded by cardboard, blankets, clothes, and trash. Juárez officials offered the migrants a chance to move to a nearby city shelter.
“We are living in a situation that is unstable, but they want to take us to the worst situation. You can’t even fit 300 people in there,” a man said. “What do they want to do to us, burn us again like they did last time? And again nobody will be accountable for what happened? Is that what they want?”
The man challenged the lack of human rights in the municipal government’s action.
“There is no human rights here. There is only police,” he said. “There are women here, kids that haven’t eaten today, that’s what the mayor (of Ciudad Juárez) doesn’t see.” There is no human rights here. There is only police,” he said. “There are women here, kids that haven’t eaten today, that’s what the mayor (of Ciudad Juárez) doesn’t’ see.”
Source: Diario.MX