The foreigners concentrated in Tapachula said they decided to make the trip out of desperation because they had been waiting for a response to their regularization procedures for months.
The march advances with a Mexican flag in front and a blanket with the slogan “Exit from Poverty.” (Photo: PL)
In the middle of the Christmas season, a huge caravan of seven thousand migrants left Tapachula, Chiapas, and headed this Monday towards the distant and almost inaccessible border with the United States.
The start of the new march comes a few hours after the official announcement that another high-level meeting will be prepared for Wednesday 27, led by Secretaries of State Alicia Barcenas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to discuss the issue.
The idea emerged in the telephone conversation between Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Joe Biden last week, precisely because of the increasing arrival of migrants at the shared border.
With a Mexican flag in front and a blanket with the slogan “Exit from Poverty,” the foreigners set out on the 24th from Tapachula Bicentennial Park on the Guatemala border toward the Chiapas coastal road to trek north.
Spokesmen for the foreigners from several countries that make up the column admitted that one of the goals of the march was to put pressure on the meeting to become less formal than before and for the United States to provide a credible response provide solution to the crisis.
Protesters denounce that Biden is allowing himself to be pressured by those who disagree with his previous actions and are demanding that he toughen his position on migrants and Mexico in return for his support in Congress of their demands for more military action and financial aid to Ukraine.
The foreigners concentrated in Tapachula said they decided to make the trip out of desperation because they had been waiting for months for a response to their regularization cases before the National Migration Institute and Mexico's Commission for Refugee Assistance.
Civil protection sources reported up to 10,000 people in the contingent, although the AC Human Dignification Center, which is accompanying the movement, estimated more than seven thousand.
The contingent includes migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and India, among others, media in Chiapas reported.