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Mexico frees activists accused of migrant trafficking

Migrant families camped in a park leave in the middle of the night as they are pushed out by Mexican immigration authorities, in Tapachula, Mexico, early Wednesday, May 29, 2019. Authorities cleared the park of camping Central American migrants and the makeshift encampment of Haitians and African migrants outside the immigration detention center near the Guatemala border. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) Migrant families camped in a park leave in the middle of the night as they are pushed out by Mexican immigration authorities, in Tapachula, Mexico, early Wednesday, May 29, 2019. Authorities cleared the park of camping Central American migrants and the makeshift encampment of Haitians and African migrants outside the immigration detention center near the Guatemala border. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

By Associated Press June 13, 2019 1 min read

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican officials say two jailed immigration activists have been set free due to lack of evidence following accusations of migrant trafficking.

Irineo Mújica, director of the nonprofit group Pueblos Sin Fronteras, and fellow activist Cristóbal Sánchez celebrated Wednesday’s decision in the southern border city of Tapachula.

They contend the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador fabricated the charges when it arrested them June 5.

Sánchez said that “we’re the first political prisoners in the ‘fourth transformation.” That’s an allusion to a term López Obrador uses to signify drastic changes envisioned by his government.

Critics say the activists’ arrests were used to placate Washington, a claim Mexico’s president denied.

López Obrador said last week: “We don’t act against anyone to stay on the good side of a foreign government.”