Migrants traveling north in the Mexican state of Chiapas pelted trailing National Guardsmen with rocks on Thursday, apparently in response to the Guard’s attempt to detain some individuals. The clash occurred near the town of Pijijiapan, about 91 miles north of Tapachula on Mexico’s southern border. A group of 100 to 150 males began throwing rocks at two truckloads of Guardsmen, injuring four male officers and one female, who required hospitalization. About 25 migrants were injured.
The fray occurred at a point near where a few days earlier Guardsmen shot and killed one migrant, a Cuban, a passenger in a truck attempting to evade a highway checkpoint.
News media were unclear as to whether either group of migrants were connected with the large caravan of around 4,000, the majority of whom were south of Pijijiapan.
The violence seems to signal a new, more aggressive phase in migrants’ behavior, many of whom in the caravan early last week had crashed through a police blockade at the southern border.
For more, see Aljazzera.