Migrant caravan with 3,000 people makes its way toward U.S. border with Mexico
At least 3,000 migrants are passing through Mexico as they are the last group to advance to the US southern border.
The group is in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas hoping to reach Mexico City, where they plan to pressure government officials to provide them with exit visas or legal documents that will allow them to continue their journey to the United States border .
The group left the Tapachula municipality – which borders Guatemala – on Sunday, reached the city of Huehuetán on Monday and braved the hot sun in the city of Huixtla on Tuesday afternoon.
Venezuelan Janet Vázquez confessed that she had no choice but to leave her ailing son at home as part of her efforts to reach the United States and find work to cover the cost of his care.
‘A long journey, very hard. We continue for our dream, for our family, that is really (living through) a crisis in Venezuela that is too difficult,” Vázquez told Univision Tuesday. ‘I have a sick son. I had to leave him there in Venezuela. Anyway, let’s fight for them. This has been really hard.’
The migrant caravan consists of Central and South Americans, as well as foreigners from China and other Asian countries who are pressuring the Mexican government to provide buses for their transfer, documents for their registration and dialogue with senior officials
The migrants expect to make the 750-mile journey to Mexico City in 10 days, but hope it can be shortened for many of the 3,000 people if the Mexican government provides ground transportation
Migrants march along the side of a highway in Alvaro Obregón, Chiapas, Monday
A migrant trapped in southern Mexico for months carries his belongings as he continues his journey in a caravan of people heading to Mexico City to expedite their US asylum applications
The caravan of asylum seekers, made up largely of individuals from Central and South America, as well as China and other Asian countries, had threatened on Monday to block roads or cause self-harm unless the Mexican government agreed to meetings or provide buses that would transport them to the capital.
“We ask the government to lend us a hand, even if it’s just for the children, even if it’s just water and food,” said Raúl Gómez Rodriguez from Honduras. “They should give us buses so we can move on.”
Among the group’s other demands is the closure of National Immigration Institute detention centers, such as the one in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez that was set on fire on March 27, resulting in the deaths of 40 migrants.
“It could very well have been one of us,” Salvadoran migrant Miriam Argueta said of the deaths in the fire. “In fact, many of our compatriots have died. All we ask for is justice, and to be treated like everyone else.’
A migrant holds a cross that reads ‘State crime. Dead’ as he and others began marching from Tapachula, Chiapas to Mexico City
Migrants walk north on their way to Mexico City from Tapachula, a town in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state, across from Guatemala
Migrants begin walking north to Mexico City from Tapachula, Chiapas, on Sunday
The caravan was organized by Irineo Mújica, an activist who holds dual citizenship of Mexico and the United States and has called on the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to bring the agency’s director, Francisco Garduño, to court for the migrant deaths .
Six National Immigration Institute officials, a security guard at the center and the Venezuelan migrant accused of starting the blaze are already in custody on murder charges.
“We ask the government that justice be done to the killers so that they stop hiding from senior officials,” Mújica said before the migrants left Tapachula.
Migrants joining a caravan rest on the outskirts of Tapachula, Chiapas, on Sunday before setting off on a massive protest march across southern Mexico to demand the end of detention centers like the one in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez that caught fire on March 27, the killing 40 migrants
A migrant woman and child rest before joining a caravan marching from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to Mexico City
Some migrants are expected to continue traveling north to a region of Mexico that borders the United States
He is also trying to get the government to demilitarize the National Immigration Institute and wants them to improve the way migrants are registered in the country.
Mújica, who founded the Pueblos Sin Fronteras activist group, has called the march a “Viacrucis,” or stations of the cross procession.
Some migrants have been spotted holding banners or wooden crosses reading ‘Government Crime’ and ‘The Government Killed Them’, referring to the 40 migrants who died in the detention center fire.
The migrants expect to complete the 750-mile hike to Mexico City in 10 days, but many are expected to continue north to the US border and challenge the administration of President Joe Biden, which has seen an influx of illegal aliens arrive at the border and enter the country.