Migrant caravan swells to 5,000, resumes advance towards US
AGROWING throng of Central American migrants resumed their advance towards the US border in southern Mexico yesterday overwhelming Mexican government attempts to stop them at the border.
Their numbers swelled to about 5,000 overnight and at first light they set out walking towards the Mexican town of Tapachula, 10 abreast in a line stretching approximately a mile (1.5 kilometres).
Several hundred more already had applied for refugee status in Mexico and an estimated 1,500 were still on the Guatemalan side of the Suchiate River, hoping to enter legally.
It was not immediately clear where the additional travellers had materialised from since about 2,000 had been gathered on the Mexican side Saturday night. However, people have been joining and leaving the caravan daily, some moving at their own pace and strung out in a series of columns as they moved across Guatemala.
They marched on through Mexico like a ragtag army of the poor, shouting triumphantly slogans like “Si se pudo!” or “Yes, we could!”
As they passed through Mexican villages on the outskirts of Ciudad Hidalgo, they drew applause, cheers and donations of food and clothing from Mexicans.
Maria Teresa Orellana, a resident of the neighbourhood of Lorenzo, handed out free sandals to the migrants as they passed. “It’s solidarity,” she said. “They’re our brothers.”
In the tropical heat, Besi Jaqueline Lopez of San Pedro Sula carried an improbable stuffed polar bear with a winter cap, the favorite, and only, toy of her two daughters Victoria, four years old, and Elisabeth, three, as they trudged beside her, all covered in sweat.
SEEKING A BETTER FUTURE
A business administration graduate, Lopez said she couldn’t find work in Honduras. She wants to reach the US, but would stay in Mexico if she could find work here. “My goal is to find work for a better future for my daughters,” she said. Her husband, David Martinez, said they were tired, but had to push on to reach their goal of making it to the US.
Olivin Castellanos, 58, a truck driver and mason from Villanueva, Honduras, said he took a raft across the river after Mexico blocked the bridge. “No one will stop us, only God,” he said. “We knocked down the door and we continue walking.” He wants to reach the US to work. “I can do this,” he said, pointing to the asphalt under his feet. “I’ve made highways.”
The migrants, who said they gave up trying to enter Mexico legally because the asylum application process was too slow and most want to continue to the US, gathered Saturday at a park in the border city of Ciudad Hidalgo. They voted by a show of hands to continue north en masse, then marched to the bridge crossing the Suchiate River and urged those still on it to come join them.