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Two INM agents suspended after videoed kicking migrant

Tapachula, Chiapas — Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) suspended two of its agents for what it said was their “wrongdoing” in an operation in which migrants were attacked at the country’s southern border on Saturday.

The suspensions, which were formally notified on Sunday, come after a video was released on social networks that shows INM agents hitting and kicking a migrant in the head to avoid passing through Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas.

The man was part of a caravan of migrants, mostly Central Americans, trying to move through Mexico to the United States.

According to the videos released, the events occurred when one of the migrants who was part of the group that was advancing on the road from Tapachula to Arriaga confronts an INM officer.

Later, two other agents try to help their partner and end up hitting the migrant, throwing him to the ground and kicking him in the face. Meanwhile, National Guard agents are observed surrounding the scene with their shields to prevent the intervention of other migrants.

The Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) suspended the agents from the August 28 attack, indicating that it will not tolerate “any conduct outside or different” from its protocols and policies for “the safeguarding and respect of the human rights of people in the context of mobility.”

Human rights organizations such as the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico and Amnesty International Mexico condemned the events and asked the Mexican government to act “with a humanitarian approach” in the face of the arrival of migrants.

According to local media reports, on Monday there was another operation by the INM and the GN to try to dismantle the migrant caravan, made up of several hundred people, which left Tapachula on Saturday.