Tapachula (Mexico), Apr 23 (EFE).- Around 5,000 migrants left this Sunday from the border city of Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas, on a migratory “via crucis” bound for Mexico City, with the first point of arrival in the capital the Basilica of Guadalupe.
They will arrive at this temple to pray for the Mexican government to end corruption, the disappearance of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and humanitarian treatment for people on the move.
With three huge white posters and red letters representing the blood of the 40 migrants who died in an immigration station in Ciudad Juárez, in the northern state of Chihuahua, thousands of people from at least 15 countries walked out to ask for justice, humane treatment and documents to continue their journey through national territory.
The migrants painted the banners with the following slogans: “The State killed them”, “migrant Stations of the Cross” and “you can deny it, but not hide it because we all know it is a State crime”, reads the banners that are held by the members of this caravan.
The director of the Organization Pueblos Sin Fronteras, Irineo Mujica, denounced that “no one cares” about the issue of the 40 migrants who died, for which he criticized that, if there is no justice, it continues to be a “state crime.”
“Have a more humane migration policy, (…) at least not a militarized, murderous National Institute of Migration (INM), which has killed and continues to kill, because it is desensitized and corrupt. This national organization has to disappear,” added the Mexican-American activist.
It was around 6:00 am (10:00 GMT), when the contingent, which includes children, the elderly and people with various health problems, took to the streets shouting “Freedom, freedom!”
In the caravan there are migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, China, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Africa and other countries.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Sofía Mendoza, originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela, pointed out that in her country she was a hairdresser but it was not enough to cover her needs, since she could barely make a single meal. Therefore, she decided to leave and migrate to Central America and reach Tapachula.
“The American dream, marrying a gringo and being able to move on, everything we have to walk, even if we have to walk a month to fulfill those dreams that we all admire. We were in Tapachula because we all had bumps along the way. (…) We ran out of money because of the extortions,” he shared with EFE.
Another of the stories is that of Julissa Aguilar, a young migrant from Honduras, who pushes a supermarket cart with a child and full of clothes, suitcases and hope for having undertaken this migratory “via crucis” that will take her to the City of Mexico with her husband and their relatives.
“In Tapachula they don’t help with anything, they have us detained, it’s like a cage and they don’t help, the papers take a long time to get out and they delay appointments and it’s all a lie, the goal is to get to the United States, I have to help my mother and my daughter”.
The scrutiny of the Government of Mexico has grown since the fire on March 27 in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States, where 40 migrants died at a station of the National Institute of Migration (INM).
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, as some 900 died trying to cross without documents from the country to the United States. EFE
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