Monday,
July 6, 2009
Honduran Coup Tests Mexico's Refugee Policy and Resolve
Frontera NorteSur
The military coup in Honduras
is providing an unexpected test of Mexico's immigration and refugee policies. On Friday, July 3, dozens of Honduran nationals
arrived at a church-run migrant shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca seeking refugee status because of the political situation
in their country.
Alejandro Solaline Guerra, spokesman for the Mexican Episcopal Conference, said a group of Hondurans
sought assistance at the House of Mercy in Ciudad Ixtepec on the Tehuantepec Peninsula. The migrant advocate said the bishops'
organization will contact the National Migration Institute to request refugee status for the Hondurans under international
law.
"Migrants from a country in a state of war should not be denied refugee status," Solaline declared.
The
Honduran political crisis could aggravate an already conflictive situation in Mexico's southern border region. Despite the
international economic crisis, thousands of Central Americans and other Latin migrants continue to cross the country's southern
border en route to the United States. Along the way, migrants remain a favorite target of corrupt Mexican officials and bands
of organized criminals.
A report from Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) last month documented the kidnappings
in Mexico of nearly 10,000 Latin American migrants, mainly from Central America, from September 2008 to February 2009. At
least 157 women were among the victims; two women were murdered and others raped, according to the CNDH.
In the latest
case to hit the national press, the Mexican Army and law enforcement officials from Tabasco and Chiapas states detained eight
alleged kidnappers. A Honduran national, Francisco Handall Polanco, was among the group of alleged Zetas gang members arrested.
Accused of holding 51 migrants against their will at a ranch in Tabasco, the group reportedly demanded ransoms reaching $5,000
from family members in return for releasing loved ones.
Once in the hands of authorities, migrants from Honduras and
other nations are usually quickly deported. Emilio Chavez, director of the pro-migrant Sin Fronteras organization, charged
that Mexico maintains a "double standard" when it comes to migrant issues. While pressuring the United States to improve
its treatment of Mexican migrants, Mexico fails to protect Central Americans within its own borders, Chavez contended.
If
the Honduran crisis drags on, Mexico could see greater than expected numbers of migrants on its southern border. The Mexican
Episcopal Conference's Solaline said more Hondurans are reportedly on their way to Oaxaca.
Identified only as "Janet,"
an 18-year-old Honduran already in Ciudad Ixtepec described the situation in her country as grim. "Schools are closed and
the hospitals have no medicine," she said, adding that electricity and propane gas shortages were also a problem.
——————————
Sources:
La Jornada, July 4, 2009. Articles by Octavio Velez, Emir Olivares and Angeles Mariscal. El Universal, July 4, 2009. Article
by Oscar Gutierrez. Cimacnoticias.com, July 3, 2009. Article by Alejandra Gonzalez. CNDH.org.mx
——————————
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las
Cruces, New Mexico
Reprinted
with authorization from Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source; translation FNS
