translated from Spanish: Why did they stop migrant rights defenders?

Irineo Mujica, president of Pueblo Without Frontiers (PSF) and Cristóbal Sánchez, activist in defense of the rights of migrants, were arrested on Wednesday by order of the attorney General of the State (FGR). According to sources close to the investigation, the two are accused of trafficking of people according to article 159 of the Law of migration, ie, to have introduced foreigners without documentation in Mexico and profit with it.
This is a special offence that is contemplated in the cases of “poultry” that charge migrants high sums for moving them from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador to the United States. Political Animal asked the prosecutor for details of the operation, but at the close of the note had not given an answer.
Lee: Organization denounces the arrest of migrants ‘ defenders Irineo Mujica and Cristóbal Sánchez
The Pueblo without Frontiers organization, comprised of Central American, Mexican and American lawyers and activists, has been supporting migrants trying to reach the United States for years. In February it was pointed out by the Secretary of the interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, of being the one who “recruits” the Central American migrants to participate in the caravans that, since October 2018, try to traverse Mexico to the north border. Already, PSF denounced the attempt to “criminalize” by the Government of Mexico.
Mujica and Sanchez are accused of trafficking in persons and have been linked to the caravans; A phenomenon that in practice allows migrants to traverse Mexico without resorting to a coyote, as they advance as a group as a form of protection.
Human rights and migrant support organizations such as the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre, Cafemin (host and training house for migrant women and families), Mesoamerican migrant movement or the observation and Human rights monitoring in southeastern Mexico denounced the arrest as “arbitrary detention” and questioned what they consider “a form of criminalization against people defending the human rights of migrants”.
Irineo Mujica was arrested in Sonoyta, Sonora, around 14:00 hours. According to people without Borders, the organization that manages, the activist was in the office of a transport company owned by his family. This office is very close to the border checkpoint with the United States. According to this story, which quotes the brother of the detainee as a witness of the apprehension, three men dressed in plainclothes handcuffed him at 14:00 hours, when he left the office. One of them showed an identification and claimed that there was a warrant for capture. Two hours later, Mujica was transferred to Hermosillo, state capital.
The government pursues migrants and leaves the human rights discourse in promise
About an hour later, Cristóbal Sánchez was arrested. According to sources close to the activist, six people in civilian clothes arrested him when he left his home in Xochimilco, Mexico City. According to this story, the men claimed to be “ministerial” agents, without showing any identification or the order of apprehension. Sanchez allegedly became quilling by one of the agents until he was introduced by a vehicle and transferred to the Public Prosecutor’s office located in Camarones.
It is planned that both are transferred to Tapachula, where the cause is instructed.
It is not the first time that both are arrested for their activism in favor of migrants ‘ rights. Mujica was arrested in Ciudad Hidalgo on 17 October 2018, a day before the caravan from Central America was intercepted by dozens of riots at the International Bridge Rodolfo Robles, which links Guatemala and Mexico. At that time he was accused of resistance to authority when he accompanied a group of migrants on his way to the border post to support those who wanted to enter Mexican territory.
On the other hand, Sánchez was arrested on 15 February outside the Jesús Martínez Toothpick Stadium in Mexico City. At that time, a caravan of about two thousand Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans crossed Mexico in the direction of the northern border. Sanchez, along with other activists, accompanied the transit. He was arrested when he came in when Federal police officers tried to arrest another activist, in this Honduran case, whom they identified as the leader of the march. In February, at least two activists were arrested and deported to Honduras for being considered as promoters of the caravan.
AMLO defends migrants against Trump, but arrests in Mexico shoot 100%
During the last year, senior officials of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador have pointed to Pueblo without Borders as a promoter of the caravans. On 28 February, the Secretary of the interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, pointed out to the organization as the main “recruiter” for the migrant caravans. He did it from Washington, where he participated in a forum organized by the Institute of Migration policies. A month later, also from the United States, the same officer predicted the arrival of the “Mother Caravan” from Honduras. According to said, 20000 people were getting prepared to reach Mexico. Finally, just 10% of these estimates, some 2500 people traveled through southern Mexico to desperdigarse on their way to the north.
In fact, the phenomenon of group marching towards the United States is not new, although it takes special relevance in 2018, when it becomes a massive phenomenon in which more than ten thousand people come to participate.
In fact, the caravans have been marching since 2011, although always starting from Mexican territory.
In 2018, for the first time, a march was convened from Central America. He departed on October 12th from San Pedro Sula in Honduras. PSF members were not in the beginning. They only made an appearance from Tecún Umán, the last municipality on the border of Guatemala, on October 17, just when Irineo Mujica was arrested in Ciudad Hidalgo. Their spokespersons have always denied being behind the caravans and presented themselves as “companions”.
Alex Mensing, PSF’s program director, denounced the arrests and said that they are both “well known” advocates for many years. “We are noted, as scapegoats,” he said. In his opinion, the operation is an attack “against anyone who criticizes the immigration policy” of the Government of López Obrador, especially with regard to caravans. Mensing recalled that, in recent months, between 20 and 25000 people crossed Mexico in a caravan. “This is a minimum percentage,” he said, after claiming the two detainees as “defenders of migrants ‘ rights.”
The speech on the caravans has hardened in recent months. It went from the apparent comprehension, being a mode of protection of the Central Americans, to be seen as a “instrumentalized” phenomenon. In January, when the first caravan of the year reached the border, the Mexican government gave more than 12000 visitor cards for humanitarian reasons, which allowed free transit through the country for a year. Five months later, the policy towards the caravans is back in detention and arrest.

Federal authorities stop new caravan of migrants in Chiapas
In fact, the operation against the two defenders comes in a context in which the pressure has increased against migrants trying to cross Mexico to reach the United States. At the same time as the two arrests were practiced, agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM), accompanied by Federal police and National Guard, were deployed on the road between Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, in Chiapas, to arrest about 400 Undocumented people who crossed the border in a caravan.
In addition to the increase in the number of arrests and deportations, the increase in the pressure on the migratory control of Mexican authorities can be documented through other measures that are being carried out, such as the operations in hotels and motels in the southern border. To capture people without documents, and the order that the National Institute of Migration gave to the owners, concessionaires and operators of passenger and tourism transport.
In a trade dated April 16 of this year, the INM asked carriers not to transfer undocumented migrants to national territory, under the warning of being punished if they do so.
In the writing signed by the Institute’s legal director, Luis Alberto Cortés Ortiz, the immigration authority CITES articles 153 and 159 of the current migration law to remind carriers that those who transfer migrants without documents “will be Sanctioned with a fine of a thousand to ten thousand days ‘ minimum wage, “being able, even, to be punished with penalties of eight to 16 years of imprisonment and fine of 5000 to 15000 days of minimum wage, if the authority detects that the transfer is made” with purpose of traffic “of persons and OB Make a profit out of it.
This measure, however, contradicts the immigration law itself, which since 2006 states that undocumented migration is not a crime, but an administrative foul. And, while the INM ensures that with it seeks to combat the traffic networks of people who use public transport to bring migrants to the northern border, civil organizations criticized that it can also cause the effect of edging, even more , to the migrant in hiding, since they will have to resort to the train known as the Beast, or walk on foot by roads of dirt and mountain, where they are easy prey of the crime and the Organized crime.
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Original source in Spanish

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