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CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico – Approximately 2,000 Central American migrants who bypassed the Mexican police on a border bridge and swam, crossed a ford and crossed the river, deciding to reform their caravan and continue their journey to the United States.
Meeting in a park in the border town of Ciudad Hidalgo, the migrants voted by a show of hands and then headed for the bridge to urge those who were still there to cross the river and join them.
"Let's all go together!" And "Yes, we can!", They exclaimed, defying President Trump's recent warnings to turn back. He sought to make the security of caravans and borders a campaign topic before the mid-term elections of 6 November.
The group's decision ended a day in which the Mexican authorities again refused to allow migrants to enter the bridge, instead accepting small groups for the treatment of asylum and issuing residence permits. 45 days to some.
Mexico had sought to maintain order after a chaotic Friday in which thousands of people rushed to the bridge, but were stopped by a phalanx of officers in riot gear. Authorities began distributing numbers of people to be treated as part of a strategy already used at US border posts to treat large numbers of migrants.
However, despite the maintenance of a large-scale police deployment on the bridge, a steady flow of migrants has made it relatively easy on Mexican soil by crossing the Suchiate River, which delineates the notoriously porous border. They were not arrested when they arrived on the Mexican side.
They swam and waded with ropes or premises that required the equivalent of $ 1.25 to transport them to muddy waters.
"We will continue to go as far as possible" and hope to make it to the US border, said Rodrigo Abeja, one of the leaders of the migrants, adding that on Sunday morning they would head to Tapachula, in Mexico.
3,000 people were on the bridge on Friday, but the crowd was drastically reduced on Saturday. In addition to the people who crossed the river, the immigration agents treated the migrants in small groups and then took them by bus to Tapachula, an open-air fair with metal roof, where the Red Cross installed small blue tents on the concrete floor.
But the pace was slow, frustrating those who stayed on deck in hot, narrow conditions.
"Please, let us in, we want to work!", They urged the officers at the main door. Behind her, workers erected high steel riot barriers to channel people in an orderly fashion.
Whenever a small side door opened to allow people to pass by, there was a body crush as the migrants moved forward desperately.
Scarleth Cruz hoisted a crying baby and drenched with sweat over the crowd, saying, "This girl is suffocating".
Cruz, 20, said she was going to ask for political asylum because of the threats and repression suffered in Honduras by President Juan Orlando Hernández 's ruling party.
The Department of the Interior of Mexico said in a statement that it received 640 refugee claims from Hondurans at the border post. He has published photos of migrants leaving a bus in a shelter and receiving food and medical care.
At least half a dozen migrants fainted.
Some tore up a fence on the Guatemalan side of the bridge and threw two young children about six or seven years old, along with their mother, into muddy waters about 20 meters deep. They were driven safely to the Mexican bank.
Mexican workers handed over food and bottled water to the migrants on the bridge. The people of Guatemala have also helped. For Carlos Martínez, 24, of Santa Barbara, Honduras, the plate of chicken and rice was his first meal of the day.
"It's a blessing they gave us to eat," said Martinez. "It gives me the courage to keep waiting, as long as I can."
Migrants cited widespread poverty and gang violence in Honduras, where one of the highest homicide rates in the world, among the reasons they went to join the caravan.
"You can not live there," said Fidelina Vasquez, who was traveling with her daughter and 2-year-old grandson.
Héctor Aguilar, 49, a former sales manager who drove a taxi to Honduras to feed his four children, said that in order to work, he had to pay a protection allowance to the two main gangs.
"On Thursday, I paid the gang on 18th Street and on Saturday the MS-13," said Mr. Aguilar. "Three hundred lempiras a day" – about $ 12.50, a large sum in Honduras where wages are low.
"I thank Mexico," Trump said Friday at an event in Scottsdale, Arizona. "If it does not work, we call the army – not the guard."
He added, "They do not come to this country."
Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman, said Saturday: "The Mexican government is fully committed to finding a solution that promotes safe, secure and orderly migration." The United States and the United States Mexico continues to collaborate with Central American governments to address the economic, security and governance issues of illegal immigration. "
Presidents Hernandez of Honduras and Jimmy Morales of Guatemala held an emergency meeting Saturday at a Guatemalan air base. According to them, about 5,400 migrants have entered Guatemala since the announcement of the caravan last week and about 2,000 Hondurans have returned voluntarily.
Thousands of migrants were sleeping – or trying to – go outside under tarpaulins and what blankets were available.
Despite the cold and uncomfortable conditions, José Yáñez, a 25-year-old farmer, was determined to continue, claiming that the $ 6 a day he was earning at home was not enough to live on.
"From there," said Yáñez, "there is no turning back."
