TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Authorities arrested an outspoken activist and immigration advocate in southern Mexico on Tuesday, a day before a group of migrants was planning to march to the country’s capital to protest their treatment.
According to a federal official, Luis García Villagrán was arrested in Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, for alleged crimes related to his work with migrants. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
García Villagran’s relatives who were waiting outside the Attorney General offices in the southern city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, declined to comment.
The activist-lawyer has accompanied many caravans over the years that formed in Tapachula, demanding safe passage to the U.S. border or speedier processing of asylum applications in Mexico.
The caravan planned for Wednesday had the more limited goal of reaching Mexico City, where there are more opportunities for work, since U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has effectively shut off the possibility of requesting asylum at the U.S. border.
In recent years, the Mexican government has worked to contain migrants in southern Mexico — far from the border with the United States. At times, this strategy has swollen migrant numbers in Tapachula until hundreds set out walking in protest. Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state and migrants complain there is little work or available housing.
Last year, some migrants accused García Villagran of extortion and state prosecutors opened an investigation. The Chiapas state prosecutor’s office has not said where that case stands.
Mexican authorities have arrested immigration activists in the past.
In 2018, activist Irineo Mújica was arrested as he led a protest in Ciudad Hidalgo, a city at the Guatemala-Mexico border. He heads the organization Pueblo sin Fronteras, or People without Borders, and was accused at the time of property damage and resisting arrest.
On Tuesday, Mújica condemned García Villagrán’s arrest in a video released on his social platforms and accused the Mexican government of criminalizing immigration and those who advocate for migrants’ rights.
Mújica was arrested again in 2019 with another activist as the Mexican government negotiated with the first Trump administration to avoid threatened tariffs. They were released days later due to lack of evidence.
Cuban migrant Jesús Pérez said on Tuesday the arrest of García Villagran was meant to keep them from leaving Tapachula, “but we’re going to leave.”
In recent days, he said, immigration agents and National Guard troops had been carrying out operations in places where migrants gather, calling it an attempt to intimidate them.
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Verza reported from Mexico City.
