Biden’s Disturbing Acceptance of State Violence Against Central American Migrants
The eerily similar deaths of George Floyd and Victoria Salazar demonstrate how our own abusive police practices have been shipped abroad in the name of “deterring” migration.
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Victoria Salazar, a Salvadoran woman who had fled her country and sought refuge in Mexico, was killed by the police in Tulum late last month when an officer knelt on her neck during an arrest. The incident, caught on camera by passersby, immediately evoked comparisons to the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of Derek Chauvin, who asphyxiated Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, which was also caught on camera.
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The police sirens resounded through the streets of Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas. Equipped with anti-riot gear, members of the National Guard marched through the streets of this small border town, flanked by agents from the National Migration Institute (INM), prepared to stop the Honduran caravan that began its journey on January 13 from San Pedro Sula. This military paraphernalia was the latest in a long list of actions by the Mexican government to prevent Central American migration to the United States.
The Mexican government’s display of military power in response to the caravan approaching its southern border reaffirmed its aversion to Central American immigration and the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration’s commitment to U.S. interests.