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TAPANATEPEC, Mexico (AP) – The Mexican government appears to be divided between preventing several thousand Central American migrants from traveling to the US border in a caravan or improving their international image on human rights.
On Saturday, shortly before dawn, more than a hundred federal policemen dressed in riot gear blocked a rural highway to encourage migrants to seek refugee status in Mexico rather than pursue their long and painful journey north. US President Donald Trump has urged Mexico to prevent the caravan from reaching the border.
The police let the caravan continue after representatives of the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico convinced them that a stretch of road without shadows, no toilets or no water. was a place where migrants could claim an offer of asylum. Many members of the caravan have been traveling for more than two weeks since forming a group in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Shortly after the caravan resumed trekking in the north on Saturday, government officials were seen for the first time, directly helping the migrants by making truck rides and providing water along the way. from the devastating road.
Martin Rojas, an agent of the Mexican Migrant Protection Agency, Grupo Beta, said that he and his colleagues planned to use agency vans to help the stragglers catch up with the caravan.
"There are people who faint, there are wounded," said Rojas, who spoke to the Associated Press after filing a group of women and children in Tapanatepec, where the caravan had planned to spend the night. Rojas transported the group to its destination after spotting it on a highway crossing temperatures approaching temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius.
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", which promises shelter, medical care, education and jobs to Central Americans who agree to stay in Chiapas, Oaxaca State, in southern Mexico, far from the US border.
The Ministry of the Interior of Mexico has stated that temporary identity numbers have been assigned to 111 migrants under this program. Identity cards, called CURPs, allow migrants to stay and work in Mexico, and the ministry said that pregnant women, children and the elderly were among those who joined the program and who attended now reception centers.
After a very hot new day on the road with her husband and 8-year-old son, Alejandra Rodriguez said that the possibility of health care and a work permit in Mexico seemed alluring. But while she had a tarpaulin and blanket to sleep in a covered car park in Tapanatepec, the 26-year-old Honduran, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, said she would prefer to start a new life further north. . She had heard that job opportunities were rare in southern Mexico.
Orbelina Orellana said that she and her husband were determined to continue in the north.
"Our destiny is to arrive at the border," said Orellana, who left three children in San Pedro Sula. She was also suspicious of the Mexican proposal, fearing to be deported if she asked for asylum in Mexico.
Mexican officials welcomed the caravan with a mix of hospitality and hostility.
Several mayors have rolled out the welcome mat for migrants who have reached their city – organizing meals and camping sites. At other times, police evicted migrants from passenger buses or prevented smaller groups from joining the caravan.
An official of the national immigration authorities said Friday that 300 Hondurans and Guatemalans who crossed the Mexican border illegally had been arrested. The group was walking in broad daylight, far from the main caravan.
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.
This year's caravans won the wrath of Trump. The Pentagon has approved a request to send additional troops to the southern border, which could amount to several hundred, to help the US Border Patrol as the president seeks to transform concerns about immigration and the caravan in electoral gains in mid-November.
Heightened fears about the caravan and illegal immigration to rally his Republican base, Trump insinuated that gang members and "Middle Easterners" were mingling with the group, although he later acknowledged that There was no evidence of that.
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Associated Press editors Julie Watson and Amy Guthrie contributed to this report.
