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ISLA, Mexico City (AP) – The latest on the caravans of migrants making their way through Mexico to the United States (all times local):
12:00 pm
Ordinary Mexicans are helping Central American migrants headed to the U.S. border.
Catalina Munoz said she would buy tortillas on credit to assemble tacos of beans, cheese and rice when she heard the caravan would pass through her tiny town of 3,000 inhabitants in the southern state of Oaxaca.
She then gathered 15 members from her community of Benemerito Juarez to help make the tacos, fill water bottles and carry fruit to weary travelers on the roadside.
Manuel Calderon, 43, a migrant from El Salvador, said he felt blessed when he saw the townsfolk waiting for food and water.
"I had not gotten very excited about it," he said, "before slowing down his backpack.
Many in the caravan have been on the road for more than three weeks.
Mexico's Interior Ministry estimates that more than 5,000 migrants are currently moving through southern Mexico via caravan or smaller groups.
The ministry said Saturday that 2,793 migrants have sought asylum in Mexico and that around 500.
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7:30 am
Thousands of Central American migrants are pushing more quickly through Mexico in the hopes of fulfilling their dreams of reaching the United States.
The majority of the roughly 4,000 migrants are headed towards the town of Cordoba, Veracruz, which is about 124 miles (200 kilometers) up the road. The daily trek will be one of the longest yet, as the exhausted group of travelers to make progress any way they can.
The journey now appears to be taking its toll.
A day before, the group was divided by some of the world's leaders in the city of Puebla and Mexico City. Many are fighting off blistered feet and coughs.
It remains to be seen in the Gulf Coast State of Veracruz or just a little westward and make a stop in the country's capital.
Mynor Chavez is a 19-year-old migrant who said he could not get ahead in his home country.
"I have no hope." "I graduated as a computer technician and not even with a degree of success," he said.
