TAPACHULA, Mexico.- A group of 2,000 migrants He took the road again to advance in caravan for him southern Mexico to the United Statesin what some consider an attempt to reach the border before November for fear that the crossing will be complicated if the Republican Donald Trump wins the elections.
Entire families, women pushing baby strollers, children holding the hands of their elders and even single adults began walking from Tapachula, considered the gateway to the southern Mexican border, before dawn to avoid the strong sun in the area. They hoped to advance about 40 kilometers.
Several hundred of migrants Migrants from a dozen countries had left the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, on Sunday, encouraged by a call that began to spread on social media a couple of weeks earlier. The rest joined in Tapachula, where there has been a recurring accumulation of groups of foreigners waiting to complete their paperwork to try to continue their journey north with some kind of document.
The formation of this new group coincided with the announcement by US President Joe Biden that he was withdrawing from the electoral race, although the migrants were unaware of this news.
“All of us here are human beings, workers, fighters,” said Venezuelan Laydi Sierra.
Almost every day, dozens of people leave Tapachula for the north, but the formation of larger groups, of hundreds or sometimes thousands of people moving through southern Mexico, has become common in recent years and usually coincides with moments when the migration issue is on the regional agenda.
These caravans have sometimes been encouraged by activists, and sometimes by migrants themselves who have grown tired of waiting.
The Mexican government has repeatedly said that people on the move are used for political interests and does not rule out that sometimes there are traffickers who take advantage of any situation to gain clients, although there are cases of entire families who are only looking for a better future or who are fleeing violence or poverty in their countries.
Salvadoran Carlos Pineda, who said he left his country because “we don’t have work,” He said there are about thirty people organizing the group, but did not give details.
Mexican authorities usually let them continue until they tire and end up dispersing without leaving the south of the country.
On Tuesday, as we passed through one of the immigration checkpoints, which was closed, many people chanted “Yes we can, yes we can.”
Source: With information from AP
