A BRIDGE TOO FAR
As a 3,000-strong migrant army tries to breach Mexican border, Trump warns: Turn back
THOUSANDS of migrants travelling en masse across Central America to the US were last night trapped on a bridge on Mexico’s southern border after failing to enter the country.
The 3,000-strong ‘caravan’, made up mainly of Hondurans, awoke yesterday on the international border bridge in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state after being battled back by border police.
The makeshift camp on the bridge has become a focus of the refugee crisis after the caravan, which comprised no more than 150 people nine days ago, swelled dramatically with hundreds more migrants joining desperate to leave poverty and violence behind them. Many spent the night in makeshift tents near the bridge after a day of violent clashes with batonwielding police.
US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to close down the US border and cut aid to countries allowing the migrant caravan to pass, said
‘We’re running away from violence’
the military would be called upon if needed. ‘They might as well turn back, they’re not coming into this country,’ he said.
But as Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales and his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernandez, met to thrash out a plan to return the migrants home, dozens boarded ramshackle boats and crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico.
The dramatic scenes came just a week after the caravan – mostly fleeing the crushing poverty and violence that has transformed Honduras into one of the most dangerous nations in the world – set out from the city of San Pedro Sula on a journey of 2,800 miles to the Mexican border.
Mexican authorities said migrants with valid passports or visas would be allowed into the country but the vast bulk trying to enter illegally have been blocked.
‘I’ll fight. I’ll try again,’ said Honduran mother-of-four Hilda Rosa, who said she left because of ‘no work and violence’.
The latest crisis comes in the wake of a major US crackdown on illegal immigrants ahead of the midterm elections on November 6. On Friday, the caravan, which includes hundreds of families, students and farmers, was met with pepper spray from shield-bearing Mexican officers as thousands tried to break through the border gates.
Jose Ramon Rodriguez, 45, a construction worker from Honduras, had made the journey with his nine-yearold son but yesterday said he planned to return home.
Some, including 40-year-old Adriana Consuelo, made it to the Mexican side of the river by paying raftsmen 25 pesos (£1) to ferry them across on vessels made of rubber tires. Marta Ornelas Cazares, 28, said: ‘We’re running away from violence, and we arrive here and they just hit us more.’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated demands that the procession does not reach the US and warned the situation was reaching a ‘moment of crisis’. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto accused migrants of attacking police.
Erika Guevara-Rosas of Amnesty International said: ‘These families deserve dignity and respect to ensure that no one is illegally returned to situations where they could risk serious harm due to violence.’