Residents Of Rafael Lara Grajales, Mexico Stand Up For Illegal Central American Immigrants

Residents of the small migrant town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Mexico were recently roused by a group of illegal immigrants who literally spilled out of a small house in their town, bloodied, beaten and begging for help:

Some dropped into the patios of adjoining houses. Most were dressed only in tattered underwear, their bodies marred by dark bruises and angry burns. One man had the handle of a knife poking from his abdomen.

The men and women ran up to shocked townsfolk and pleaded in their Central American accents: We were kidnapped. The local police are involved. Please help.

Instead of whistling and going back to watching “The View” with a Hot Pocket or two, the town’s residents mobilized one another using cell phones and bullhorns and offered the immigrants shelter, clothing (most had been stripped to their underwear), medical care and food. The migrants had been kidnapped at some point during their journey and had been beaten and raped by their captors:

Evis Casco, a Honduran, said he saw the kidnappers pay a police officer $100 for him. He said his captors stabbed his hand repeatedly as they demanded telephone numbers of family members in the U.S. and Central America.

Migrants who refused said they were beaten or burned. Sometimes, the

kidnappers held flames to their genitals to make them talk.

When they gave in, their family received ransom calls demanding payments of up to $5,000 for their release, they said.

When police came and eventually took the kidnappers into custody from their hideout in the village, the townspeople continued to look out for the immigrants. They soon suspected that the police, who attempted to load the kidnapped people into a van with their captors, had been bribed and began to stone their vans:

The crowd began shouting at the migrants not to board the bus: “Don’t get on! You aren’t safe!” The migrants panicked and began crawling out the windows. Police grabbed them and shoved them back in.

One man with a bullhorn called more townspeople to come to their aid. The crowd quickly swelled to hundreds.

A few people hurled rocks at the van, and the multitude began pushing against riot police surrounding City Hall, witnesses said. “Run! Get away!” people in the crowd shouted at the migrants. “You aren’t safe!”

Residents set the police vans aflame and captured the police inside city hall, barring their exit with a burning all-terrain vehicle. The mayor has since dismissed accusations of police corruption and The National Human Rights Commission are looking into how the government and police handled the situation to determine for themselves whether there was any wrongdoing.

The townspeople, and the migrants said to still be hiding in Rafael Lara Grajales, are afraid of retaliation by police of kidnappers but added that they hope their town serves as a model for how to help those who cannot always help themselves, saying that thoughts of their own immigrants family members in the United States prompted them to act.

Mexican town stands up for illegal immigrants from Central America [NY Daily News]