Mexican immigration authorities raided the offices of a newspaper in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, searching for undocumented immigrants on Wednesday, April 25, reported the news agency Proceso.
The newspaper, Diario del Sur, which publishes in the border city of Tapachula, reported that four agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM in Spanish) questioned the newspaper's employees, who had to provide official identification papers to prove their Mexican nationality. The journalists said this was a type of harassment for the newspaper's criticism of the immigration institution's decision to close the border with Guatemala and stop Central American tourists from entering Mexico.
According to the newspaper, the INM agents searched the entire building, from the newsrooms to the restrooms. After the search, the INM agents reported that they had not found any foreign employees in the newspaper's offices.
After the raid, the representative of the INM, María de las Mercedes Gómez Mont, called the director of the newspaper and denied that she had ordered the operation. Nevertheless, Diario del Sur, the oldest newspaper in the state of Chiapas, requested the intervention of the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Against Journalists of the Attorney General's Office, and of the Special Commission for Attention to Journalists and Media in the House of Representatives. The newspaper also said it will file a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission.
