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Migrants climb to the top of a truck while a caravan of thousands of Central Americans continues its slow march towards the US border, outside of Arriaga, at the Mexico, Saturday, October 27, 2018. Many migrants said that they felt safer when they slept with several thousand foreign strangers cities than hiring a smuggler or trying to make the trip alone. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
TAPANATEPEC, Mexico – Thousands of Central American migrants took a break on Sunday during their long trip to southern Mexico, but pledged to move closer to the US border at around 1,000 kilometers, as Mexican government agencies seem to hesitate between help and hinder.
Some were sitting in the shade of tarpaulins hung in the city square or collecting garbage. Others went to soak in the nearby Novillero River.
Tensions caused by a long walk in overwhelming heat, accompanied by valuable food and other goods, spread on Saturday night when a dispute over a food distribution line resulted in a beating of one person. man falsely accused of stealing a child.
Raul Medina Melendez, security officer for the tiny municipality of Tapanatepec in the state of Oaxaca, said the city was distributing sandwiches and water to migrants camped on the central square on Saturday night. . When a man wearing a megaphone asked people to wait their turn, men insulted him. "In the end, people really got angry and the people downstairs started attacking the guy," said Medina.
As the man ran, a false rumor spread that he had grabbed a child to protect himself and that he had been caught and beaten. The police rescued him and took him to the hospital for treatment, although his condition was not immediately clear.
On Sunday, several in the caravan took pickups to denounce the attack.
"Is this the way we will always behave?" Asked a woman from Honduras. "Whenever there is a rumor, everyone will run to hit someone?"
Others have complained of smoking marijuana or being disrespectful because of pictures of litter and unconsumed food.
On Saturday, a branch of the federal government seemed for the first time to directly help migrants to progress rather than trying to diminish the caravan. Grupo Beta, the Mexican agency for the protection of migrants, took stragglers and distributed water.
"There are people who faint, there are wounded," said Martin Rojas, an agent of Grupo Beta, who spoke with the Associated Press after dropping a group of women and children in Tapanatepec after spotting them on a highway running at temperatures near 104 Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
However, other agencies have periodically attempted to hinder or erode mass migration, the progress of which has led US President Donald Trump to threaten to take action against Mexico.
Earlier Saturday, more than 100 federal police in riot gear blocked a highway before dawn to encourage migrants to seek refugee status in Mexico rather than continue their journey north.
The police let the caravan leave after representatives of the Mexican National Human Rights Commission convinced them that a stretch of rural road without shade, toilets or water was not a place where migrants could go. to claim an asylum offer. Many members of the caravan have been traveling for more than two weeks since forming a group in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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" that promises shelter, medical care, education and jobs for Central Americans who agree to stay in Chiapas or Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, away from the US border.
The Mexican Ministry of the Interior said that temporary ID numbers had been assigned to 111 migrants, which would allow them to stay and work in Mexico. The ministry said that pregnant women, children and the elderly were among those who had joined the program and were now being cared for in shelters.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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