INM denied the resignation of Paola López as head of the unit in Chiapas

The National Institute of Migration (INM) announced that Paola López Rodas, head of this unit in Chiapas, has not resigned from her position as it began to spread on social networks on Saturday, April 9.

In the early morning of last Friday, April 8, the delegate's husband, Juan Pablo “N”, was arrested by a group of agents of the Attorney General's Office (FGR) for their alleged involvement in a network of trafficking in persons.

According to information released by local media, López Rodas's husband was allegedly involved in the death of 55 migrants following a trailer rollover that occurred in December 2021 in Chiapas de Corzo.

Following his arrest, talk began about the resignation of Paola López, who is in charge of the unit after General Aristeo Taboada Rivera was dismissed as a delegate of the Institute in Chiapas at the end of December 2021. However, this was denied through the INM Twitter account.

It should be noted that Paola López Rodas holds a law degree and has held various positions in the public administration before. He has worked in the Chiapas State Prosecutor's Office, in the area of Vehicle Theft, as well as in the administrative area of the Social Reintegration Center No. 3.

So far there is no official communiqué that reports on the arrest of her husband, who had previously served as head of the livestock area of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), region 8, in Tapachula. According to the first reports, Juan Pablo “N” was apprehended in Chiapas, in the border town of Suchiate and spent a couple of hours in the separos of Tapachula.

The accident in question occurred on December 9 of last year, when a trailer overturned on the road to Chiapas de Corzo, at the height of the El Refugio neighborhood, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Due to the speeding with which the driver was driving, he lost control of his unit and hit a wall of a pedestrian bridge.

After the crash, the trailer box came off and at least 55 migrants lost their lives, among adults and minors, while another 105 were injured. According to local media, 166 people were inside the transport unit in overcrowded condition. Meanwhile, the chauffeur fled.

The situation of migrants in Chiapas has been conditioned by the constant dissolution of the caravans that cross the entity to reach the northern border with the United States. At the beginning of April 2022, more than 700 migrants were intercepted by INM agents in that state.

On Sunday, April 3, the caravan “Viacrucis migrante” was dissolved after it left the city of Tapachula. In total, 500 men, 126 women and 75 minors were insured, who were transferred to the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco to provide care and determine their immigration status.

Earlier, on 18 March, a group of approximately 500 migrants violently broke into the vicinity of the Office of South Zone Immigration Regularization, in Tapachula, allegedly demanding the obtaining of visas for humanitarian reasons. As a result, services in these offices were suspended for a couple of days.

As of March 8, the immigration authorities have intercepted about 73,034 foreigners with an irregular stay in the country: 61,469 were adult women and men, while 11,565 were minors.

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