Third migrant caravan enters Mexico
DONAJI, Mexico — A third caravan of migrants — this time from El Salvador — waded over the Suchiate River into Mexico on Friday, bringing another 1,000 to 1,500 people hoping to reach the U.S. border.
The third caravan tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, but Mexican authorities told those traveling in it they would have to show passports and visas and enter in groups of 50 for processing. The Salvadorans expressed misgivings that they would be deported, so they turned around and waded across a shallow stretch of the river to enter Mexico.
Although police were present, they did not try to physically stop the migrants, who later walked along a highway toward the nearest large city, Tapachula.
Mexico is now faced with the unprecedented situation of having three migrant caravans stretched out over 300 miles of highways in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. The first, largest group of almost 4,000 entered almost two weeks ago and is now in Donaji, Oaxaca.
The second caravan, also of about 1,000 to 1,500 people, is now in Mapastepec, Chiapas.
It remained unclear whether the first caravan will make a turn east to Mexico City, or try to reach the nearest and most dangerous stretch of border, which lies almost directly north. Divisions began to appear about what route to take.
It also remained unclear how many migrants would make it; 20 days of scorching heat, constant walking, chills, rain and illness had taken their toll. Mexico’s Interior Department said Thursday nearly 3,000 of the migrants have applied for refuge in Mexico and hundreds more have returned home. At its peak, the caravan had about 7,000 people.
Honduran migrant Saul Guzman, 48, spent the night under a tin roof in the Oaxaca state town of Matias Romero with his son Dannys, 12, before setting out for the town of Donaji, 30 miles north.
“I have been through a lot,” said Guzman. “I want to spend my time differently, not in poverty.”
In his hometown of Ocotepeque, Honduras, he left behind a coffin, either for his mother, who suffers dementia, “or for me, if I don’t make it,” Guzman said.
The migrants had already made a grueling 40-mile trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, on Thursday, after they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. But hitching rides allowed them to get to Donaji early, and some headed to a town even further north, Sayula.
The migrants have not said what route they intend to take, but any trek through the Gulf coast state of Veracruz could take them toward the Texas border. Another large caravan early this year passed through Veracruz but then veered back toward Mexico City and eventually tried to head to Tijuana in the far northwest. Few made it.
Immigration agents and police have been nibbling at the edges of the first two caravans.
A federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said 153 migrants in the second caravan were detained Wednesday during highway inspections in Chiapas, a short distance from the Guatemalan border.