MEXICO CITY: Mexican officials say two jailed immigration activists have been set free due to lack of evidence following accusations of migrant trafficking.
Irineo Mujica, director of the nonprofit group Pueblos Sin Fronteras, and fellow activist Cristobal Sanchez celebrated the June 12 decision in the southern border city of Tapachula.
They contend the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fabricated the charges when it arrested them June 5.
Sanchez said that “we’re the first political prisoners in the ‘fourth transformation’”. That’s an allusion to a term Lopez 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.
Lopez Obrador had said earlier: “We don’t act against anyone to stay on the good side of a foreign government.” AP
