Thousands of migrants blocked by a caravan on the southern border of Mexico

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala – A dead end between thousands of Central American migrants trying to reach the United States and the Mexican police stretching out at night on the southern border of Mexico, some migrants hanging at the closed border door lamenting " there are children here. " Others slept on an overcrowded bridge connecting Guatemala to Mexico.

On Saturday morning, thousands of people were stranded on Mexico's southern border after an unsuccessful attempt to enter the country, BBC News reported.

Members of the migrant caravan, made up of more than 3,000 migrants, crossed a barrier at the Guatemalan border and rushed to the bridge over the Suchiate River. Men and women, some with young children and sweat-soaked babies, began to storm and climb the fence – demolishing it. They defied the demands of the Mexican authorities for an orderly crossing and threats of retaliation by US President Donald Trump.

But they were met on Friday by a police wall with anti-riot shields on the Mexican side of the bridge. About fifty people managed to clear their way before the police released a pepper spray and the rest retired, joining the sea of ​​humanity on the bridge.

Police and immigration officers started letting small groups of 10, 20 or 30 people go by and wanted to apply for refugee status. Once they have filed a claim, they can go to a shelter to spend the night there.

Some migrants, tired of waiting, jumped off the bridge in Suchiate River on Friday. They risked drowning after the defeat. When asked why he wanted to jump, a 16-year-old answered, "There is no work here."

As night fell on the bridge, the frustration of the migrants turned into despair as women holding young children took the ranks at the door, pleading with the Mexican Federal Police. Some migrants shouted "We are hungry!" Others install tarps to prepare the night to sleep on the deck more and more dirty and clogged.

"Please, it's dark. Let's move on to something else," pleaded in front of the officers, Alba Luz Giron Ramirez, a former shop assistant and mother of three.

Giron said they had come from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and that gangs had killed his brother and threatened him.

"We want them to give us permission to go to Mexico," said his 5 – year – old son Ramon, in a child 's voice. "We would not stay."

Alison Danisa cried while she was kneeling in the garbage already piled on the deck, squeezing her naked baby for 11 months on her chest.

"We have suffered so much, she has a fever and we have not brought anything," she said, showing the baby's bottom to indicate that he had no diapers.

A Mexican marine official with a loudspeaker approached the door and told the migrants that they would be taken in trucks to a "humanitarian monitoring center" in Tapachula, a border town of the Mexican state of Chiapas. But the manager did not say when it would happen.

Migrants have banded together to travel massively in recent years, but this caravan was unusual in its size, said Victor Clark Alfaro, a professor of Latin American studies at San Diego State University. In comparison, a caravan in April that also attracted Trump 's anger was about 1,000 people.

"It draws attention to the fact that the number of people in these types of caravans is increasing," said Alfaro Clark. "It's a migration of another dimension."

Elizabeth Oglesby, a professor at the Center for Studies on Latin America's University of Arizona, said that caravans join this caravan because it's a way to travel relatively safely and avoid paying thousands of dollars to smugglers.

In the evening of Friday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a speech to the nation that a large group of migrants had "tried to enter the Mexican territory in an irregular manner, attacking and even wounding some elements of the federal police ".

"Mexico does not allow and will not allow entry into its territory in an irregular and even less violent way," he said.

Mexican officials said that people with valid passports and visas – only a tiny minority of those trying to cross – would be admitted immediately. Migrants wishing to take refuge in Mexico are welcome, they added, but those who decide to cross illegally and are captured will be arrested and deported.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez tweeted Friday night to talk to his Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, and ask permission to send Honduran civil protection personnel to the bridge to help the migrants. "I have also requested permission to rent ground transportation for anyone who wishes to return and an airlift for the special cases of women, children, the elderly and the sick," he said. tweeted Hernandez.

Hernandez and Morales are expected to meet in Guatemala early Saturday to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile, the US president made it clear to Mexico that he was watching his response. On Thursday, he threatened to close the US border if Mexico did not stop the caravan. Later that day, he tweeted a video of the Mexican Federal Police deployed at the Guatemalan border and wrote, "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the illegal migration a "crisis" and stressed "the importance of ending this flow before it reaches the US border. ", while recognizing Mexico's right to manage the crisis in a sovereign way.

He also said, "We need to correct US laws to handle this properly, it's a US burden and a US-only burden."

Oglesby, a professor at the University of Arizona's Latin American Studies Center, challenged Pompeo's assertion that there would be a "crisis" in the migration.

"The border is not in crisis.This is not a migration crisis. (…) We are witnessing peaks in Central America, but migration has reached its lowest level. in 40 years, "said Oglesby.