A caravan of some 800 migrants left Tapachula, Chiapas, this Saturday, seeking to advance to the north of Mexico after the procedures on the southern border take months and there are no jobs to support the wait.
The group, which includes Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Hondurans, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, Haitians and other nationalities, left Bicentennial Park and headed towards the coastal highway of the state to advance towards Huehuetán, where their first stop will be.
The contingent advances guarded by patrols of the National Guard, State Police and an ambulance from the Ministry of Health.
At one point on the highway, agents from the National Institute of Migration offered to help them with their regularization procedures so that they would not continue walking, but the migrants rejected the offer.
Angelo Miguel from Peru decided to join the Caravan because in Tapachula he had heard that the procedures with the National Institute of Migration and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance take months, and that he did not have a job to pay for a place to live or for food.
Questioned about the recent incident where six migrants died – including one Peruvian – from gunfire by the Mexican Army, the South American expressed his dismay and recognized the risks of the journey.
“The situation is very hard. We learned that one of our compatriots was killed recently, we feel very sorry because the only thing we really ask for in Mexico is respect as humans, we also respect them because we are in a foreign country, what we want is, like every human being, that they give us the necessary support,” she said in an interview.
María Quijije, from Ecuador, is traveling with her husband and two children, and decided to join the Caravan so as not to risk traveling alone and not expose themselves to crime.
“The cartels are packed, you can’t go by public transport because they say they take you to the place they say they are, but they keep kidnapping you, that’s what I’ve heard,” he said.
Migrants believe that by traveling in a large group they can cope with arrests by the authorities or harassment by criminals. So they asked for help to allow them to move towards the American dream.
Source: jornada
