A clash between migrants and authorities at the southern border of Mexico turned deadly last week. About 1500 Central American migrants headed north for the U.S. border in a second migrant caravan wave came to a confrontation at the closed border crossing, a bridge.
Henry Diaz Reyes, attempting to immigrate north to join family already in the United States, was killed in the incident.
Here is the description of the events from the Los Angeles Times, which in its headline attempted to suggest that the crackdown on illegal crossings was to blame, rather than the illegal crossing itself.
Henry Diaz Reyes and about 1,500 other Central American migrants had just pushed past Guatemalan authorities and onto a border bridge to Mexico.
Mexican federal police were waiting for them in riot gear. The official border entry was closed, police said.
The migrants shouted obscenities and hurled rocks at the police, who responded by launching tear gas.
As the Oct. 28 scuffle escalated, projectiles started whizzing through the air. One struck Diaz, who fell to the ground, bleeding from his head. Rescuers rushed him to a hospital, where the 26-year-old was declared dead.
“He had so many plans,” said his half-sister, Glenda Reyes, who lives in Florida. Plans to work in the U.S. and have his son learn English. Plans to reunite with family members who had made the journey north and were finally living comfortable lives. “They took them,” Reyes said.
“They” in this case being the authorities, who take the vilification in the story and from Reyes relatives.
Well, the authorities and President Trump.
Large-scale confrontations on Mexico’s southern border were unheard of until last month. In the past, Mexican immigration agents regularly deported Central Americans in the country illegally, but usually after intercepting individuals or small groups well inside Mexico at checkpoints along highways or railroad tracks.
That changed in the run-up to the U.S. midterm election, when President Trump began referring to migrant caravans as invasions and threatened to withhold aid from Mexico and Central American nations that failed to stop them.
Despite the projectiles, despite escalation by migrants in this and other segments of the caravan, the blame as usual is on the terrible governments who want to control their border and retain sovereignty, and not on the so-called refugees who are attacking police and border patrol agents, rioting, and taking over towns.
CNN says the caravan fears are all made up. I say, tell it to Henry Diaz Reyes. Or the people of Tijuana.