First modification: 09/05/2021 – 03:30
The Government of Mexico has deployed a strong police operation that, on several occasions, has used excessive force to dissolve the caravans, as reported by the United Nations. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has assured that he will request urgent help from his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
On Thursday, September 2, the third migrant caravan that left the south of Mexico towards the north was disintegrated. However, this Saturday, a fourth group of at least 400 people undertook the journey.
The fourth caravan is made up of men, women and minors, mostly Central Americans, Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians. All of them left around 7:00 am (local time) from the Mexican municipality of Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala. Its course is the north of the country with the hope of crossing into the United States.
The fourth caravan started the road in a more organized way than the previous ones and walked peacefully on the federal highway.
Previously, during the early hours of the morning, numerous Mexican agents arrived at the Miguel Hidalgo park, in the center of Tapachula, the main meeting point to try to dissuade the exit. However, the migrants took alternate streets to leave the city amid criticism of the authorities.
The hundreds of members seek to reach the municipality of Huehuetán, located about 26 kilometers away, where the first migratory step is.
The travelers assured that they are desperate due to the lack of economic resources to wait for the issuance of official documents that allow them to stay in Mexico or transit through that country. Some of them have been waiting for about two years for their situation to be solved and, meanwhile, they are in shelters increasingly overcrowded with migrants.
This is what happens, for example, to Sharon, a 31-year-old Honduran woman who has lived in Tapachula for a year. She sells sweets to support her three children and assures that she delivered all the required documentation, but “nothing is ever fixed.” Through tears, he assured the Reuters agency that “there are only appointments and more appointments. I’m scared, but if I don’t get out of here, I’m not going to get a job.”
“The lives of us migrants have no value. Many countries are abusing us as migrants. We are only going through one country, we do no harm, we are not drug traffickers and we are not doing anything wrong,” said Roberson, a Haitian from 36 years.
Three caravans dissolved in the middle of a strong police operation
The group this Saturday left less than 48 hours after the third caravan had been dissolved, in the midst of a strong operation launched by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stop the advance towards the border with the United States.
United Nations agencies reported that Mexican agents used excessive force. In the midst of the dissolutions, several agents have been caught chasing and harassing numerous migrants. During Thursday’s caravan, the moment when two Mexican immigration officials kicked a Haitian citizen who was detained was recorded.
The response of the authorities has raised questions about the strategy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador who, on Thursday, indicated that during the next week he will send a letter to the US head of state in which he will insist on the importance of addressing the causes of migration. forced. This instead of opting to retain the migrants on Mexican soil, while the United States resolves their asylum requests.
With EFE and Reuters
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source https://pledgetimes.com/a-fourth-migrant-caravan-leaves-the-southern-border-of-mexico-for-the-united-states/
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