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Mexico seeking migrant rights north of border, but is harsh toward illegal Central Americans (Ilarh Stevenson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TULTITLAN, Mexico — Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money. While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence. And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides tew protections for migrants on its own soil. The issue simply isn’t on the country’s political agenda, perhaps because migrants make up only 0.5 percent of the population, or about 500,000 people — compared with 12 percent in the United States. The level of brutality Central American migrants face in Mexico was apparent Monday, when police conducting a raid for undocumented migrants near a rail yard outside Mexico City shot to death a local man, apparently because his dark skin and work clothes made officers think he was a migrant. Virginia Sanchez, who lives near the railroad tracks that carry Central Americans north to the U.S. I border, said such shootings in Tultitlan are common. “At night, you hear the gunshots, and it’s the judiciales (state police) chasing the migrants,” she said. “It’s not fair to kill these people. It’s not fair in the United States and it’s not fair here.” Undocumented Central American migrants complain much more about how they are treated by Mexican officials than about authorities on the U.S. side of the border, where migrants may resent being caught but often praise the professionalism of the agents scouring the desert for their trail. “If you’re carrying any money, they take it from you — federal, state, local police, all of them,” said Carlos Lopez, a 28-year-old farmhand from Guatemala -1 crouching in a field near the tracks in Tultitlan, waiting to climb onto a northbound freight train. Lopez said he had been shaken down repeatedly in 15 days of traveling through Mexico. ' “The soldiers were there = as soon as we crossed the river,” he said. “They said, ‘You can’t cross ... unless you I leave something for us.’” Jose Ramos, 18, of El Salvador, said the extortion occurs at every stop in Mexico, until migrants are left penniless and begging for food. “If you’re on a bus, they pull you off and search your pockets and if you have any money, they keep it and say, ‘Get out of here,”’ Ramos ] oaiu. Maria Elena Gonzalez, who lives near the tracks, said female migrants often complain about abusive police. “They force them to strip, supposedly to search them, but the purpose is to sexually abuse them,” she said. Others said they had seen migrants beaten to death by police, their bodies left near the railway tracks to make it look as if they had fallen from a train. The Mexican government acknowledges that many federal, state and local officials are on the take from the people-smugglers who move hundreds of thousands of Central Americans north. iRRn • conTinucDFRomii diplomatic efforts. “We are convinced that neither sanctions nor the use of force will lead to the solution of the problem,” he said in televised comments. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tianka, China’s top ~ iiiWHMul uni—11111111111 iiiiMi' ■» i i nonproliferation official, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting in Moscow, has appealed to Iranian leaders to reach a negotiated settlement, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Russia and China, which have strong economic ties to Iran, have opposed punitive measures. Dario Lopez-Mills / The Associated Press A Central American migrant rides a train headed north on his way to the United States near the town of Tultitlan, on the outskirts of Mexico City on Monday. Need a new prescription for your glasses or contacts? 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