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Coordinators of a caravan of several thousand Central American migrants moving into southern Mexico urged its members to rest Sunday. At first, the migrants had sworn to continue anyway, but then changed their minds when a child had been abducted.
The migrants said they would stay and meet Sunday in Tapanatepec. Late Saturday night, migrant groups ran through the streets of the city, claiming that a child had been stolen. Something similar has caused panic at a previous stop, but has not been confirmed.
After being delayed for a few hours after the federal police stopped coming out of Arriaga town on Saturday morning, most of the migrants arrived in Tapanatepec in extreme heat. Dozens of people headed for the Novillero River below the central square to bathe, wash their clothes and cool off. Others lined up at a medical aid station primarily to pay attention to their injured feet.
For the first time, a branch of the federal government seemed to directly help migrants to progress rather than trying to diminish the caravan. In this case, Grupo Beta, Mexico's Migrant Protection Agency, offered rides to laggards and distributed water to them.
During the regular meeting of the caravan on the village square, its coordinators tried to force a little chivalry.
Many migrants have relied on hitchhiking to move between cities rather than walking along the path. When trucks stop, it is usually young men who run first to reach them. Women who carry children or push strollers are at a disadvantage.
On Saturday night, a nun scolded men and urged women to be more aggressive in pursuing the rides. She said the church would help organize five trucks to transport only women with children during the next hike to Niltepec, about 33 km (54 km).
"For me, it's bad because there must be a tie because we're all fighting this way," said Hector Alvarado. The 25-year-old from Atlantida, Honduras, had to leave school and leave his wife and 2-year-old daughter to try to make a living in the United States.
Rosa Bonilla is traveling with a 10 year old daughter and a son who will be 2 years old this year. The single mother admitted that she never beat the men in front of the trucks that stopped, but added that some men had looked for the mother and made sure that she got on board.
"I do not agree that there should be only women with children," she said. She argued that husbands should be allowed because they help protect women.
"If we go alone, anything can happen," she said.
The Mexican government seems to be divided between preventing migrants from reaching the US border and improving its international image on human rights.
On Saturday, shortly before dawn, more than a hundred federal policemen dressed in riot gear blocked a rural highway to encourage migrants to seek refugee status in Mexico rather than pursue their long and painful journey north. US President Donald Trump has urged Mexico to prevent the caravan from reaching the border.
The police let the caravan continue after representatives of the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico convinced them that a stretch of road without shadows, no toilets or no water. was a place where migrants could claim an offer of asylum. Many members of the caravan have been traveling for more than two weeks since forming a group in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Shortly after the caravan resumed its lead on Saturday, government officials reached out to them.
Martin Rojas, an agent of the Mexican Migrant Protection Agency, Grupo Beta, said that he and his colleagues planned to use agency vans to help the stragglers catch up with the caravan.
"There are people who faint, there are wounded," said Rojas, who spoke to the Associated Press after filing a group of women and children in Tapanatepec, where the caravan had planned to spend the night. Rojas transported the group to its destination after spotting it on a highway crossing temperatures approaching temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius.
The caravan has yet to travel 1,600 kilometers to reach the nearest US border crossing point in McAllen, Texas. The trip could be twice as long if the approximately 4,000 migrants were heading to the Tijuana-San Diego border, as had another caravan earlier this year. About 200 people from this group managed to get to the border.
Most of the migrants in the caravan appeared determined to reach the United States, despite offering refuge in Mexico.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday launched a program called "You're at Home", which promises shelter, medical care, education and jobs to Central Americans who agree to stay in Chiapas, Oaxaca State, in southern Mexico, far from the US border.
The Ministry of the Interior of Mexico has stated that temporary identity numbers have been assigned to 111 migrants under this program. Identity cards, called CURPs, allow migrants to stay and work in Mexico, and the ministry said that pregnant women, children and the elderly were among those who joined the program and who attended now reception centers.
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Associated Press editors Julie Watson and Amy Guthrie contributed to this report.
