Migrant caravan from Central America, its numbers thinning, slowly moves north in Mexico
Thousands of Central American migrants continued their journey toward the U.S. border Thursday reaching the coastal town of Mapastepec, in Chiapas, Mexico.
tropical downpours. Many caravan participants have dropped out because of the difficulties.
At times, the group stretched out over several miles along the Panamerican Highway, which is bordered by mango and banana plantations and pasture carved out of the semi-jungle landscape. The migrants walk and seek rides from motorists and truck drivers, and occasionally jump on public transportation. Some young men hitch rides on semi-trailers, a hazardous maneuver.
At least one caravan member, a Honduran man in his early 20s, was killed after being run over by a vehicle.
Upon reaching a town, the caravan members typically rest for an evening or more, often staying on streets and in plazas and parks, seeking out shade and shelter. Aid groups, church volunteers and local families have provided food, water and other necessities. Many caravan participants have suffered
from dehydration, exhaustion, insect bites and other ailments.
Neither Mexican police nor immigration officials has made a concerted effort to deter the group.
Many caravan participants say they are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. The Trump administration has characterized some as criminals and economic migrants and says they do not qualify for political asylum in the United States.
More than 1,600 former caravan participants are applying for refugee status in Mexico and are being kept at a sprawling fairgrounds site in Tapachula, about 20 miles north of the border with Guatemala, authorities say.
President Donald Trump has portrayed the caravan’s bedraggled assemblage as a national security threat during campaign appearances in advance of U.S. midterm elections Nov. 6.
Mexican authorities have straddled a line between their avowed respect
for human rights for migrants – Mexico is a major source of immigrants in the United States – and pressure from Washington to halt the migrants’ advance.
In the town of Huixtla, about 50 miles north of the Guatemalan border, more than 200 exhausted and ailing caravan participants returned south late Wednesday on four buses. Honduran diplomats in Mexico helped arrange the return trip.
“I would keep on going, but my daughter has a fever and she needs rest to get better,” said Merlyn Guardado, 37, who said she joined the caravan Oct. 14 in Honduras. Like others, she said she heard the news about the caravan on TV, packed up and quickly met the group, along with her three children – two sons, 14 and 9, and her daughter, Meylin, 3.
“I did it for the kids more than anything,” Guardado said while seated in the plaza in Huixtla, cradling Meylin. “There’s no jobs for anyone in Honduras, men or women.”
WASHINGTON – CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed President Donald Trump on Thursday about her trip this week to Turkey, where she listened to audio purportedly capturing the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, as Saudi Arabia appeared to acknowledge that its agents had murdered the dissident Saudi journalist in a “premeditated” operation.
A statement issued by the public prosecutor in Riyadh, citing shared Turkish evidence of premeditation, marked the latest reversal in the Saudi version of events and put the focus directly on the question of who ordered Khashoggi’s death.
U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have said that the killing, in a foreign country, of a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was unlikely to have taken place without the knowledge of the kingdom’s most senior leaders.
Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Saudi authorities, who insisted for weeks that he had left the building after a meeting and that they had no information on his whereabouts, said Saturday that their investigators had determined he was accidentally killed there during a brawl with Saudi agents. The authorities said the agents were there to discuss his desire to return to the kingdom but offered no indication of who had sent them.
The Saturday statement said that 18 unnamed Saudis had been arrested, and five senior officials had been fired. It also said that a high-level committee to restructure Saudi intelligence agencies - headed by Mohammed - had been formed and that a joint Turkishsaudi investigation into Khashoggi’s death was underway.
Mohammed and his father, King Salman, have both repeatedly assured Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week, that they had no knowledge of a plot to kill Khashoggi.