Mexico’s Secretary of Interior says criminal gangs have infiltrated the migrant caravan

The Secretary of the Interior in Mexico, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, acknowledged that unfortunately criminal gangs have infiltrated the migrant caravan, as confirmed by the Guatemalan government, but they have already been identified. "Today we learned that they approached at 9:00 a.m. and threaten personnel of the National Institute of Migration, that if they were not allowed to enter the country they would take different actions, and that the worst was still to come", the Secretary told media at a news conference. He said that it was also detected, through photographs, criminal elements in the caravan "were filling bottles with gasoline to be able to create Molotov bombs". Navarrete Prida explained that even the government of Guatemala suspended the gasoline sales service and closed all the stores in the Tecún Umán area, bordering with Mexico. "We are proceeding with the identification. We already have some people with a first and last name and, of course, in international collaboration, they will be arrested; These are crimes that are committed and are putting at risk the migrant population itself," he explained. The head of the Segob stressed that there is no certainty so far about which criminal groups they belong to, but that money was distributed to pregnant women, children and elderly people so that they would be located in the front line criminal elements sought to enter Mexico by force. He clarified that so far there has not been contact with authorities of the government of Mexico City to discuss the entrance of the caravan to the capital, in order to provide support at the reception and through the location of shelters.