Mexico gives visas to caravan migrants

Procession attracted criticism from Trump

MATIAS ROMERO, Mexico — The Mexican government began handing out transit or humanitarian visas to people in a caravan of Central American migrants, and said the procession of 1,000 or so migrants that drew criticism from President Donald Trump had begun to disperse.

Some migrants who awoke at the camp Wednesday said they would try their luck at requesting asylum in the United States, others in Mexico.

Elmer Zelaya Gomez, 38, from eastern El Salvador, has been sleeping with his wife and three children — ages 7, 13 and 14 — on the soccer field under blankets as they wait for temporary transit visas from Mexico to continue to the U.S. border.

“We didn’t leave our countries just because we wanted to,” Zelaya Gomez said. “It’s for the safety of our children.”

Like many, he had joined the caravan — which was never expected to be so big, and never planned to go all the way to the border — because there was safety in numbers.

Now, the family faces the prospect of travelling solo; the caravan is scheduled to make its last stops this week at a migrants rights symposium in the central city of Puebla, and end in Mexico City.

“It seems a little complicated, with the robberies, kidnappings, and all of that,” Zelaya Gomez said. “It’s a little scary to travel without the caravan.”

The caravan is an annual, symbolic event held around Easter each year to raise awareness about the plight of migrants and has never left southern Mexico, though some participants then continue north on theirown.