Two injured after clash between migrants, Mexico National Guard

Two were injured on Thursday after migrants traveling to the U.S. border clashed with Mexico’s National Guard troops.

“There are two injured migrants, they were badly beaten. The officers tried to surround them with their shields,” Luis Garcia, one of the organizers for the group, told Reuters.

“Everything was chaotic. It’s not right that the authorities keep acting this way. Despite all the repression we’re not going to stop,” Garcia added.

The clash came after the group of migrants from the Caribbean and Central America took a break from their trek Sunday due to health issues among women and children. 

“There are more than 150 boys and girls who can’t walk any more,” Luis Villagran, one of the leaders of the group, said at the time. “There are pregnant women with sores on their feet who can’t continue walking. We estimate there are 90 women in a critical state.”

Garcia told Reuters there were four buses that took migrants away after the confrontation.

Pictures and videos seen by Reuters show the National Guard in riot gear and migrants detained by National Migration Institute agents.

The National Migration Institute previously offered the thousands of migrants visas so they could get food and travel assistance but the group has rejected the offer. 

The migrants say the rejection is in protest of past treatment by the Mexican government towards migrants and due to their distrust of the institution.

The incident comes after the National Guard shot and killed a Cuban migrant around the same area the clash between the caravan and National Guard occurred, according to Reuters. 

The group started their journey in Tapachula, a city on the border of Guatemala, and are still hundreds of miles from Mexico City.