On Wednesday, Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) left over 480 Honduran, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran migrants on the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The nearly 500 Central Americans had boarded buses from several migration detention facilities throughout southern Mexico to be sent back to their countries of origin.
But Guatemalan immigration agents refused to accept the migrants over fear of contracting COVID-19. (Guatemalan border restrictions were extended to April 30.) The migrants aboard the buses revolted and many left to find their own way across the border. Some, in bands of 10 to 12, traveled from there to the southern Mexican border city of Talisman, Chiapas.
Talisman residents were not receptive to the large numbers of migrants in their community. Stones and logs were placed on city streets to block the Central Americans from entering. The abandonment of migrants ignited protests in border municipalities and the Mexican national guard was deployed to quell disturbances caused by belligerent demonstrators.
Officials arrested and transported the remaining foreign nationals to the Siglo XXI Migratory Station in Tapachula.