No nozzles for now, weary caravan migrants set to resume march

JUCHITAN, Mexico City – Thousands of weary Central Americans in a migrant caravan to reach the United States had their visions of Mexico City dashed Wednesday as dozens of hoped-for failed to materialize.

The migrant took the walk off the road and hitched it up in a small town.

But as the day went by, it was not signified by the leaders, it was not going to happen.

"The attempt to travel by bus," Walter Cuello said.

After spending the night at a city-owned property on the outskirts of the southern city of Juchitan, the migrants wandered around the world by Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez, known as "the king of ranchera music," played in the background. Loudspeaker announcements discuss a bathroom and a prohibition on charging money to power their cellphones.

Red Cross personal bandaged the swollen feet of Honduran farmer Omar Lopez, who had pounded the hot asphalt of highways every day for the last two weeks after spending a few days on concrete sidewalks with a thin sheet of plastic for cover. Lopez said playing a soccer game at home.

"The sacrifice is worth the effort," Lopez said. "I promised to buy my sound and I'm going to make good. I do not like things, I also want to give them education. Everything good costs money. "

Amid the increasing exhaustion of the migrant, a Guatemalan woman gave birth to the first known baby caravan at a hospital in Juchitan. Mexico's governmental National Human Rights Commission said it was arranged for medical attention for the woman, who was 28 weeks pregnant, and the girl was healthy.

The plan for Thursday is to set out around 3 a.m., taking advantage of the cool pre-dawn and morning temperatures to Santa Maria Jalapa del Marques, about 35 miles (57 kilometers) to the west.

The migrants were not told what they were planning to reach, and Juchitan, still about 900 miles from U.S. soil, was something of a crossroads. Choosing Jalapa del Marques and Oaxaca State's eponymous capital is based on the Gulf Coast State of Veracruz, the latter a common transit route to McAllen, Texas.

In Washington on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised Mexico for stopping the migrants from getting wrinkles. "Mexico has stepped up in an unprecedented way," Sanders told Fox News. "They have helped a lot of the transport means of these individuals in these caravans, forcing them walking. They have helped us in this new way to slow this down, to break this up and keep it moving aggressively towards the United States. "

The Mexican government, has, in fact, taken a fairly contradictory stance on helping or hindering the first caravan, reflecting the country's balancing act: Officials do not want to irk Trump, but Mexicans themselves have long suffered mistreatment as migrants.

For the first week of the caravan, the Mexican federal police sometimes enforced obscure safety rules, forcing migrants off paid mini-buses, citing insurance regulations. They also stopped some pickup trucks carrying migrants and forced them to get off. But in recent days, officials from Mexico's immigrant-protection agency have organized wrinkles for straggling women and children on the caravan as a humanitarian effort.

And police have routinely stood by as migrants piled aboard freight trucks.

A second, smaller group of 1,000 or so migrants who forced their way into Mexico on Monday was trailing some 250 miles back. They spend Tuesday night in the city of Tapachula.

Behind them, a third group of migrants from El Salvador had already made it to Guatemala, and on Wednesday a group of about 700 Salvadorans set out from the capital, San Salvador, with 1,500 miles away.

Salvadoran man Jose Santos, 27, brought up his baby with him on the quixotic quest.

"I did not want to go, but I'm unemployed," Santos said. "There is no work here, and the violence never stops."

The caravans combined represent just a few days' worth of the average for migrants to the United States in recent years. Similar caravans have occurred more often than not, but U.S. President Donald Trump has made it easier for us to make border security a hot-button issue than a week before midterm elections.

The Pentagon has announced that it will deploy 5,200 troops to the Southwest border, though federal law restricts the lawsuit of engaging in law enforcement on U.S. soil. Their role would be largely limited to those of the United States, such as

Trump said Wednesday that the number could go as high as 15,000. He also tweeted: "We will not let these Caravans, which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members, in the US Our Border is sacred, must come in legally. TURN AROUND! "

Worn down from long miles of walking and frustrated by the slow progress, many migrants have done just that, dropping out and returning home or applying for status in Mexico. The initial group is significantly less than 7,000 migrants. 200 people who reached the U.S. border at San Diego.

Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said about 2,300 have applied to stay in Mexico.

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Associated Press writer Peter Orsi in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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