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Va Racke | Reporter on Immigration and Foreign Policy
Several hundred migrants from Central America tried Sunday to pass the police to a checkpoint on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, causing clashes that took the lives of a migrant and tens of thousands of people. 39, others injured.
The group, composed mostly of Honduran men, had crossed a gate leading to the border bridge between the Guatemalan city of Tecun Uman and Ciudad Hidalgo in Mexico.
As they headed for the bridge, they were greeted by Mexican officers who had been ordered to block unauthorized migrants. In the ensuing melee, one of the migrants was killed in the head by what the Guatemalan authorities called a "rubber bullet," reported the Associated Press.
The Guatemalan authorities did not reveal the name of the man who was killed, but described him as a 26-year-old Honduran national. At a press conference held Sunday evening, Mexican Secretary of the Interior, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, denied that the Mexican police were responsible for the death of this man.
Navarrate Pida said the migrants had attacked police officers with stones, glass bottles and fireworks and that some of them were armed with firearms. He denied that Mexican officers were deployed with firearms with rubber-tipped ammunition.
The group of migrants involved in Sunday's clash has emerged as a second caravan, following a much larger stream of Central American migrants heading north through Mexico and heading towards the US border. The largest group, which is estimated by Mexican authorities at about 4,000 people, was sitting Sunday in Tapanatepec, a city in southern Mexico.
Both caravans are part of a highly publicized wave of Central American migrants trying to reach the US border, where they intend to seek asylum. Some of the migrants say they are fleeing widespread violence in their home country, while many others, especially young men, are migrating for economic opportunities. (RELATED: The vast majority of Hondurans immigrate to the United States for economic reasons and not to flee violence)
A group of men belonging to a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants en route to the United States, are lowering the gate of the border with the intention of continuing their journey, at Tecun Uman, Guatemala, October 28, 2018. REUTERS / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
President Donald Trump described the caravans as an "invasion" and threatened to drive back all migrants to the southwestern border. The Trump administration is questioning the opportunity to deploy up to 5,000 active duty soldiers to support federal forces with additional logistical and surveillance capabilities. .
The large caravan is still about 1,000 km from the nearest border crossing in McAllen, Texas, and almost twice as far from the US port of entry near Tijuana. A similar caravan was found in April in Tijuana, where about 400 of the 1,500 original migrants sought asylum at the port of entry.
Mexico offered to grant asylum to all remaining caravan migrants in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca in southern Mexico. About 1,700 migrants have sought asylum in Mexico, but thousands more say they intend to go to the United States.
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