‘MOMENT OF CRISIS’
Migrants break down gate into Mexico
All hell broke loose at the Guatemala-Mexico border on Friday when Honduran migrants in a mass caravan hoping to reach the US temporarily broke through and were repelled by Mexican riot police wielding pepper spray.
About 50 people made it across the border during the chaotic clash before the Mexican cops sealed the breach while being pelted by rocks and bottles.
“We need you to stop the aggression,” one officer ordered to no avail.
“One way or another, we will pass,” the migrants chanted, clambering atop US-donated military jeeps as Guatemalan police looked on.
Several marchers, federal police and journalists were wounded in the confrontation, Agence France-Presse reported.
A Guatemalan border fence proved no match for crowds of young men who pushed against it before tearing it down.
With the barrier toppled, men, women and children rushed through toward a bridge just up the road that led to Mexico.
They passed babies through the crowd. Mothers held crying children by the hand or pressed infants to their chests as they streamed onto the bridge.
“Open please!” one woman wept as she stood at the final barrier, baby in arms.
“The children are suffocating,” said young man.
Among the first to charge past the Guatemalan police was Edwin Santos of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, who ran while clutching the hands of his father and wife.
“We are going to the United States,” he shouted. “Nobody is going to stop us!”
“We’re going to get in! We’re going to get in together,” cried another as the migrant caravan of about 3,000 massed on the bridge separating Guatemala and Mexico.
Mexican authorities said they wouldn’t take action that could harm women or kids.
The migrants put “pregnant women and children at the front” to storm the gate, Mexico’s interior minister, Alfonso Navarrete, claimed to a local television network, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“There is no possibility that we’ll act in a coercive way, hurting a vulnerable group,” Navarrete said.
Mexican federal police chief Manelich Castilla told FOROtv that his forces achieved their main objective of preventing a violent breach by the migrants.
Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, Mexico’s ambassador to Guatemala, said his country would allow 100 to 200 migrants in a day to have their asylum visa requests reviewed.
The process will let them enter Mexico and stay until their cases are resolved.
The caravan is fleeing Honduras, a country racked by gang violence and poverty, in hopes of reaching the US. They have pressed on despite President Trump’s warning that they should turn back.
The first wave of migrants reached the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman early Thursday, with others trickling in amid downpours later in the day.
The crowd of thousands waved Honduran flags and chanted, “We are not smugglers, we are immigrants,” as they gathered Friday along the muddy Suchiate River.
Trump has warned that the US will yank aid to Honduras and deploy military to quash the caravan before it reaches the US.
Earlier Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with top officials in Mexico and agreed with the country’s request to the United Nations to set up a migrant-processing center near its southern border.
“We are quickly reaching a point which appears to be a moment of crisis,” Pompeo said in joint appearance with Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray Caso.
“We are deeply aware that the way Mexico will handle this, the way you will handle this is your sovereign decision,” Pompeo added.