Thousands of migrants halted after storming Guatemala-mexico border
CIUDAD HIDALGO (Mexico): Thousands of migrants who forced their way through Guatemala's northwestern border and flooded onto a bridge leading to Mexico, where riot police battled them back, on Saturday waited at the border in the hope of continuing their journey to the United States.
The caravan of mainly Honduran migrants, whose journey has triggered escalating antiimmigrant rhetoric from US President Donald Trump, on Friday surged through a series of police lines and barricades up to the final fence on Mexico's southern border.
There –at the far end of the bridge over the Suchiate River, which forms the western part of the Mexico-guatemala border –they hurled rocks and other objects at hundreds of riot police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Multiple migrants, federal police and journalists were wounded. "We're running away from violence, and we arrive here and they just hit us more," sobbed 28-year-old Marta Ornelas Cazares, who was nursing her baby –but had lost her other two children, aged 10 and 15, in the turmoil.
"I don't know what happened, I thought we were going to cross peacefully and then suddenly there were rocks flying and tear gas," she told AFP.
"We haven't eaten, the soldiers just sent us some water," Marina Alvarado, 48, said.
"We are imprisoned here, like animals. Please, open the door," she pleaded. Mexican authorities insisted the undocumented migrants would have to file asylum claims one at a time in order to enter the country. They began letting them through in a trickle – first women and children, who were ushered onto trucks and taken to shelters. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto described the situation as "unprecedented."
"Violent entry into the country not only threatens our sovereignty, but also puts the migrants themselves at risk," Pena Nieto said in a video published on his social media profiles. He added Mexico remains willing to support migrants who enter the country and respect its laws.
The migrants are generally fleeing poverty and insecurity in Honduras, where powerful street gangs rule their turf with brutal violence.