Brief hopes of migrants on buses for the Mexican capital

SAYULA, Mexico (AP) – Thousands of Central American migrants traveling in a caravan crossing southern Mexico had little hopes of reaching the capital on Saturday after the governor of the state of Veracruz had solicited the money. offer of dozens of buses.

Governor Miguel Angel Yunes announced on Friday night that Veracruz authorities would not only provide humanitarian assistance to migrants, but also buses to bring them to Mexico City, after three weeks of hiking on highways and hitches to reach the city. Coastal state.

"It's very important that they can move quickly from Veracruz to another place," Yunes said in a video message. "For this reason, we have also offered them a means of transport so that, if possible, tomorrow (…), they can go to Mexico City or wherever they wish."

Organizers of the caravan of about 4,000 migrants announced to their members that they would leave the town of Sayula around 5 pm Saturday, in convoys of 10 buses for a journey of 10 to 12 hours. A caravan coordinator jubilant told the group, "We're all going there!"

But almost immediately afterwards, Yunes released a second video in which it was reported that Mexico City's water supply system is under maintenance and that 7 million of its inhabitants would be without water during the weekend. would not be correct to send the migrants there. Maintenance has been known for weeks.

Instead, he suggested that the migrants be taken to another town in Veracruz until the problem in Mexico City is resolved.

"I want to make an offer to migrants who accept my invitation to go to a town in Veracruz, as long as this problem is solved", which has the conditions to accommodate them, he said.

The migrants expressed their surprise and disappointment at this decision and did not immediately know what they would do on Saturday.

"We think it was a manipulation and a game mixing the feelings of migrants," said Osman Quiroz, a 21-year-old migrant. "It's an unpleasant new since people were happy."

The organizers of Caravan issued a statement in which they rejected Yunes' decision and asked him to fill his bus offer to Mexico City.

The bus service to Mexico City and the subsequent overthrow came after the Mexican government ignored the migrants' request to travel to the capital city a few days earlier, when they were on their way to Mexico City. were found in Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca.

Earlier in the day, a third caravan of migrants – this time from El Salvador – crossed the Suchiate River in Mexico on Friday, bringing another 1,000 to 1,500 people to reach the US border.

The third caravan attempted to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, but the Mexican authorities told those who would make it to show a passport and a visa and to enter by group of 50 to be processed.

Salvadorans feared to be deported, so they turned around and crossed a shallow stretch of the river to enter Mexico.

The police were present, but she did not attempt to physically stop the migrants, who then took a highway to the nearest big city, Tapachula.

Mexico is now facing the unprecedented situation of three caravans spread over more than 500 km of highways in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, with a total of about 6,000 migrants. On 19 October, the first and largest group of migrants, mainly Hondurans, entered Mexico.

Although the first caravan numbered 7,000 people in the past, it has dropped considerably. It has been difficult to know their exact number because the inhabitants are scattered on motorways and in small towns.

The second caravan, which also numbers between 1,000 and 1,500 people, entered Mexico earlier this week and is now in Mapastepec, Chiapas. The second group includes Hondurans, Salvadorans and some Guatemalans. In addition, the government has identified a fourth, smaller group of 300 Central American migrants in the state of Veracruz on the Gulf Coast.

We still did not know how many migrants would arrive there; 20 days of heat, constant marches, chills, rain, and disease had taken their toll. According to the Department of the Interior of Mexico, nearly 3,000 of the first caravan's migrants have applied to be refugees in Mexico. hundreds of others have returned home.

The migrants made Thursday a grueling 40 km (65 km) journey from Juchitan, Oaxaca, after failing to get the bus that they hoped for. Friday's carriages allowed them to arrive early at their destination of the day, Donaji, and some headed for a city further north, Sayula.

Immigration agents and police nibbled the edges of the first two caravans.

A federal official who was not allowed to quote his name said that 153 migrants belonging to the second caravan had been arrested Wednesday during roadside inspections on the highway to Chiapas, a short distance away. of the Guatemalan border.

Pressure was also exerted on the first caravan. Federal police began stopping cargo trucks and forcing migrants to leave the harbor, saying their habit of hanging on top or alongside trucks was dangerous.

At other points along the way, the police forced the overloaded pickups to drop off the migrants. In previous days, they ordered the vans to stop helping with transportation.

President Donald Trump sent American troops to the Mexican border in response to migrant caravans. More than 7,000 active duty soldiers have been deployed to Texas, Arizona and California.

Trump told the US military mobilizing at the southwestern border that if US troops were to face migrants who were throwing stones, they should react as if they were "guns". He also plans to sign an order next week that could result in large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and prohibit anyone illegally taken the right to apply for asylum.

Although some migrants clashed with the Mexican police on a bridge at the Guatemalan border, they repeatedly denied coming with malicious intent, claiming that they were fleeing poverty and violence.

"We are not killers," said Stephany Lopez, a 21-year-old Salvadoran with the first caravan.

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Peter Orsi's associate editor in Mexico contributed to the writing of this report.