TAPACHULA – On the eve of the visit of a US delegation to address the migration crisis, a caravan of more than 10,000 migrants left Mexico's southern border this Sunday in the middle of Christmas night to put pressure on both governments.
The thousands of migrants from 24 nationalities left the border town of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas early Sunday morning and risked the journey to Álvaro Obregón, where they will spend a complicated Christmas.
This group of people, mainly children, women and entire families, walked along Federal Highway 200 and crossed the first checkpoint of the Ejido Viva México, where they were only observed passing by employees of the National Guard and the National Migration Institute (INM).
Civil Protection Delegate Julissa Esther Briones Magaña confirmed to EFE that there are 10,000 people related to mobility, which is why she recommended the migrant population to protect their health and that of their children, while urging drivers to drive carefully due to the massive exodus of people .
According to Luis Rey García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), this caravan is the largest exodus of this year and could include 15,000 people who will walk as many days as possible to reach Mexico City at your first point.
“There is a plug and a human knot that is reflected in this group that we lead. We tell the Mexican state that it leaves us no choice but to go down the path to the INM and the finger of the President of the Republic, Andrés.” Manuel López Obrador, say yes or no. Today we are the poorest of the poorest of those who are at the height of need, those of us who have no money to pay for visas or polleros,” Villagrán said.
Venezuelan migrant Jesús Silva, traveling with his wife, said immigration officials loaded him into a unit in Ciudad Hidalgo and took him to the Siglo 21 immigration station, where they were given a document to leave Mexico.
“Actually the option is to walk. I trust in the caravan because there we feel safer with Latin American brothers who set out with a new dream and a hope for a life,” shared Silva.
Honduran migrant José Wilmer Fernández Caballero, who expressed his positive decision by the Mexican Commission for Refugees (Comar), has tried to leave Chiapas, but immigration authorities tell them that it is worthless and useless.
“It was pointless to spend so much time in Tapachula, a waste of time, they always take me out and bring me back, here we have a positive intention, but they always take me out of the station wagon (bus) and tell me that it is worthless.” he said.
This caravan walked about four hours from Tapachula to the Ejido Álvaro Obregón, where its members will spend Christmas under trees, roofs, on the weeds, ground, cardboard, mats and sheets that they carry with them to be able to spend this night familiar, in peace and with much joy, but in which they began this journey to reach the United States.