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ISLA, Mexico (AP) – A caravan of 4,000 people made up of Central American migrants from Mexico was divided into several groups, one of them spending the night in a city from the coastal state of Veracruz and other migrants continuing to head for the country's capital.
The divisions arrived during a tense day during which spirits went wild and some migrants quarreled with caravan organizers and criticized Mexican officials. They were unhappy that the governor of Veracruz, Miguel Angel Yunes, denied the offer Friday night to provide buses to allow migrants to move to Mexico City.
The migrants traveled to Isla, a town about 1,126 kilometers south of the US border, where several thousand people stopped to rest, eat and seek treatment. They had planned to spend the night there before leaving at 5 o'clock on Sunday towards the city of Cordoba.
But other migrants, mainly men and younger members of the group, continued to walk or hitchhike to Puebla and Mexico City. They squatted for the night at Juan Rodriguez Clara or Tierra Blanca further down the road.
"We think it's best to continue with the caravan, we will stay with it and respect the organizers," said Luis Euseda, 32, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and traveling with his wife, Jessica Fugon. . in Isla. "Others are gone, maybe they have no purpose, but we have a purpose and that is to happen."
The organizers of the caravan have pleaded for buses in recent days after three weeks of driving, riding and walking. With the dispersed group, some wondered if the caravan would remain welded.
In one statement, the migrants criticized the Mexican authorities for having directed them north through the state of Veracruz on the Gulf Coast, calling it "the road to death". A hike through the sugar cane fields and orchards of Veracruz takes them to a state where hundreds of migrants have disappeared in recent years, plagued by kidnappers seeking ransom.
Authorities in Veracruz said in September they found the remains of at least 174 people buried in clandestine graves. Some security experts have wondered whether these bodies belong to migrants.
Gerardo Perez, a 20-year-old migrant, said that he was tired. "They play with our dignity, if you could only see the happiness of the people last night, they told us that we were going by bus and that today we are not," did he declare.
The caravan's "strength of the number" strategy enabled them to mobilize support when they moved to Mexico and encouraged migrants to come and try their luck via caravan.
Mexico is facing the unprecedented situation of three caravans stretching over 500 km of highway in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, with a total of more than 6,000 migrants.
On Friday, a caravan from El Salvador crossed the Suchiate River in Mexico, bringing 1,000 to 1,500 people to reach the US border.
This caravan first tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, but the Mexican authorities told them that they should show their passports and visas and enter in groups of 50 to be processed.
Another caravan, which also numbers between 1,000 and 1,500 people, entered Mexico earlier this week and is currently in Chiapas. This group includes Hondurans, Salvadorans and some Guatemalans.
The first and largest group of mainly Honduran migrants entered Mexico in October.
Mexican officials seem to be in conflict about whether to help or hinder their trip.
Immigration officers and police sometimes arrested migrants in smaller caravans. But several mayors have rolled out the welcome mat for migrants who have reached their city – organizing food and camping sites.
According to the Department of the Interior of Mexico, nearly 3,000 migrants from the first caravan asked to be refugees in Mexico and hundreds more returned home.
With or without the help of the government, uncertainty awaits.
President Donald Trump has commanded US troops on the Mexican border in response to caravans. More than 7,000 active duty soldiers were deployed in Texas, Arizona and California before the mid-term elections.
He plans to sign an order next week that could lead to large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and prohibit anyone illegally taken the right to apply for asylum.
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Amy Guthrie, Associated Press Editor in Mexico contributed to the writing of this report.
