Two US-Bound Migrants Detained in Mexico for Armed Attack on Policemen

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Two Honduran migrants, who were crossing Mexico with the caravan of illegal migrants from Central America on their way to the US border, were arrested in Mexico on Monday for an armed attack against local police officers, the country's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, published on the ministry's official website, the attack took place in the border town of Frontera Hidalgo in the southwestern Mexican state of Chiapas, which borders on Guatemala.

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"Fortunately, their weapons failed to fire and they did not get to wound any member of the Federal Police," the ministry said, adding that the assailants, aged 17 and 22, were detained, while the police also seized a Glock pistol.

The first caravan of illegal migrants set out from Honduras in the direction of Mexico and the United States on October 13, hoping to get asylum in these countries. According to the UN estimates, the caravan includes more than 7,000 migrants, while the Mexican Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry said that there were around 3,600 asylum seekers. At the moment, around 1,000 miles separate the caravan, which has already crossed the Mexican southern border, from the United States, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on Monday that the CBP was tracking a second caravan of about 3,000 asylum-seekers on the Guatemala-Mexico border. The US Department of Defense announced that the United States would deploy over 5,200 soldiers to the country's southwestern border with Mexico to bar thousands of illegal migrants from entering the country.