In migrant caravan, weary parents cite kids as motivation
Huixtla, Mexico — As thousands of Central American migrants renewed their trek Wednesday through Mexico toward the hoped-for, but still far-distant U.S. border, the physical toll was beginning to show in sickness and exhaustion, especially among the children toddling along, being pushed in strollers or carried in the arms of adults.
And for their parents, it was their hope for their children’s futures, and fears of what could happen to them back home in gang-dominated Honduras, that were the main motivation for deciding to leave in the first place.
“They can’t be alone . ... There’s always danger,” said Ludin Giron, a Honduran street vendor making the difficult journey with her three young children. “When (gang members) see a pretty girl, they want her for themselves. If they see a boy, they want to get him into drugs.”
And it is well known that refusing either can be deadly. Honduras has a homicide rate of about 43 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world for any country not in open war.
On Wednesday, Giron was crammed with her children, 3-year-olds Justin and Nicole, and 5-year-old Astrid into the seat of a motorcycle taxi meant for only two passengers. Also perched in the perilously overcrowded motorbike were Reyna Esperanza Espinosa and her 11-year-old daughter, Elsa Araceli.
Espinosa, a tortilla maker from Cortes, Honduras, said there was no work back home and “that’s why we decided to come here, to give a better future for our children.”
As a column of migrants on foot trekked past, about half a dozen Mexican minibuses were pulled over near the town of Escuintla at a police roadblock.
Officers ordered all Central Americans removed from the vehicles — even though they had paid their fares.
Minibus driver Johnny Morales Castellanos said police told him “the insurance doesn’t cover them because they’re foreigners.”
It was not immediately clear if the tactic was part of a broader effort to restrict the caravan’s progress. The migrants were not detained but had to continue the journey on foot in 90-degree heat, unless they could find another ride.