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PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico – Pijijiapan's main square quickly became a makeshift yard, as thousands of Central Americans entered the southern Mexican city.
A severely dehydrated woman connected to intravenous tubing was sitting on a plastic chair in the gazebo. Nearby, volunteer nurses took cold temperatures and coughed up with medications as the migrants lined up.
Two weeks of walking weighed on a caravan of immigrants estimated at more than 4,000 people heading slowly towards Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, far from their goal of reaching the United States.
On Thursday, during the first four hours, Dr. Jesus Miravete treated more than 120 people. Many had burns on their feet while walking in plastic sandals on the steam road.
"Many say to me," I can not rest. I have to continue, "said Miravete. "It's really hard, I feel overwhelmed, especially by the number of dehydrated children I've seen."
Yet migrants planned their most ambitious journey in a day since arriving in Mexico and aimed Friday to reach Arriaga, about 100 km from the coast.
As in many places in Chiapas, the people of Pijijiapan mobilized to help travelers arriving on foot, providing shelter, food and medical treatment. Some people proposed walks on the square. Others came with worn out clothes and boxes of sandwiches.
The caravan had already been greeted in the same way in Mapastepec, a municipality of 45,000 inhabitants located 30 km to the south, where representatives of the city pitched tents around the main square. Local churches offered free showers and set up food distribution points.
"They are human beings. You have to do something to help them, "said Cesar Cabuqui, who has distributed dozens of homemade bean and cheese sandwiches, as well as water bags.
Chiapas is home to some of the poorest communities in Mexico. Yet the cities on the migrant route have been organized to offer them at best shelter, medical care and donations.
Grateful for hospitality, many migrants have tried to be respectful visitors.
Jose Reyneri Castellanos, from El Progreso, Honduras, was standing behind the rest of the caravan with his wife and two young sons to help clean and tidy up at Mapastepec – as they did at every stop, thinking that this would help ensure warm welcome continuity as they head north.
"I think it's important to leave the community and the city clean," Castellanos said.
Many migrants say they dream of finding a better life in the United States. They claim to have been driven out of their homeland by extreme poverty and the rise of gang violence.
Such caravans have occurred regularly, albeit on a smaller scale, over the years, but US President Donald Trump has seized the phenomenon this year. He warned against this illegal immigration and its caravan, repeating to hit the Democrats on this issue as the United States move towards the highly contested mid-term elections of November 6th.
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is expected to sign an order to send 800 or more additional troops to the southern border to support the border patrol, according to a US official, who requested anonymity because he was unable to He was not allowed to speak in public because the details had not been finalized yet.
The caravan is still about 1,000 km from the nearest border crossing in McAllen, Texas, but the trip could be twice as fast if the migrants were heading to the Tijuana border crossing in San Diego. It was the destination of a smaller caravan at the beginning of the year, and only about 200 people in the group did it.
This group has also started thinning. According to the authorities, 1,740 have applied for refuge in Mexico and hundreds have agreed to make bus trips to Honduras. The illness, the exhaustion and the harassment of the police helped to reduce their number.
Immigration officials appeared to be more aggressive in dealing with migrant movements in a stifling 90-degree heat.
A taxi driver in Mapastepec said he saw immigration officers force migrant passengers to get off taxis at a checkpoint.
An official from the country's Human Rights Commission said that migrants could pass if they were in vans or trucks that offered them free rides, but if they had paid, they would have to go out. because of insurance regulations.
Thursday, the long column stretched for miles along the highway. Families with young children filled the sidewalks by asking for donations and rides.
Candy Guillermo, 37, said she had heard from other people in the caravan about Trump's willingness to send US troops to the border. A single mother of four, she was puzzled that the leader of such a powerful country finds her threatening, as well as the families who follow her.
"It surprises me because there are children here. President Trump should be more humane, "said Guillermo, wiping the sweat off his brow." We only want to give our children a better future. "
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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