Illnesses close in on migrant caravan

Many Central Americans quitting journey to live in countries en route to U.S.

HUIXTLA, MEXICO — Still more than 1,500 kilometres from their goal of reaching the United States, a caravan of Central American migrants briefly halted their arduous journey Tuesday to mourn a fellow traveller killed in a road accident, and to rest weary, blistered feet and try to heal illnesses and injuries suffered on the road.

Thousands awakened as the sun rose over a makeshift encampment in a rain-soaked square in the far southern Mexican town of Huixtla, a chorus of coughs rattling from the shapeless forms wrapped in blankets and bits of plastic sheeting.

Sunburned from the daytime heat and chilled by the overnight cold, many appeared to be developing respiratory problems. Edwin Enrique Jimenez Flores, 48, of Tela, Honduras, had one of those persistent coughs, but still vowed to reach the U.S. to seek work. “My feet are good,” he said. A mobile medical clinic truck pulled into the square in the morning to offer the migrants treatment. Municipal worker Daniel Lopez said the town was offering food and water as well as basic painkillers and rehydration liquids, and some children were running high temperatures.

Overnight, candles arranged in the shape of a cross were lit in a simple memorial to the dead Honduran man, who fell from the back of an overcrowded truck Monday as it travelled on a highway.

“Today we won’t move. Today is a day of mourning,” said activist Irineo Mujica of the Pueblo Sin Fronteras group, which is aiding the migrants. He added that they would leave before dawn Wednesday headed for Mapastepec, about 60 kilometres up the coast.

The caravan, estimated to include more than 7,000 people, has advanced about 75 kilometres since crossing the border from Guatemala and still faces more than 1,500 kilometres to the closest U.S. border crossing at McAllen, Texas — and more than twice that to reach the distant Tijuana-San Diego crossing.

Nearly 1,700 from the current caravan have already dropped out and applied for asylum in Mexico, according to Mexican authorities, and another 500 have decided to voluntarily return home to Honduras. And the numbers could thin out far more as people decide to take their chances in Mexico or strike out on their own.

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