Migrant trek in Mexico

MAPASTEPEC: Central American migrants clustered for the night yesterday in a southern Mexico town after advancing on their trek toward the United States, despite Mexico’s vows to hinder their progress under pressure from the Trump Administration.

Thousands of men, women and children, mostly from Honduras, shuffled throughout the afternoon into the town of Mapastepec in Chiapas state, still more than 1770km from the US border.

As nightfall came, they camped on pavements in the small town, wrapping knapsacks in plastic and huddling beneath awnings.

Their trek has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who has used the migrant caravan to fire up support for his Republican party in congressional elections next week.

It has also prompted Washington to put pressure on the Mexican Government to halt the migrants’ progress.

The caravan, which began as a march of a few hundred people from the crimewracked Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on October 13, swelled into the thousands as it was joined by migrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Mexican authorities have told the migrants they will not be able to cross illegally into the US.

Alex Mensing of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group that organised a previous migrant caravan that angered Trump in April, said yesterday the current caravan comprised about 10,000 people.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras is accompanying the caravan, which Mensing forecast would fragment.

‘‘It’s very unlikely that 10,000 people will arrive together at a border city between Mexico and the United States,’’ he said. — Reuters