A second caravan of about 2,000 Central Americans migrated back to the state of Chiapas on Tuesday, after crossing the river between Mexico and Guatemala the day before.
Like those of the other caravan, these migrants, mostly Hondurans, rejected the Mexican President’s assistance plan offering them medical coverage, education for their children and temporary work provided they arrest and file asylum applications in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.
These migrants, including women and children, arrived in Tapachula on Tuesday, where they spent the night, after traveling 33 miles. On Monday they crossed the Suchiate river after being turned away by the Mexican police on the border bridge.
Mexico’s Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday that two Hondurans wanted by their country’s courts, one for a triple murder and the other for drug trafficking, have been arrested and sent back to Honduras by plane. The authorities did not specify in which caravan the two men were traveling with.
The first caravan, which brings together about 4,000 people according to the NGO Pueblos Sin Fronteras, arrived Tuesday in the locality of Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca, located in southern Mexico.
The migrants spend the night in tents in an abandoned bus depot where traces of the magnitude 8.2 earthquake that ravaged the city on September 7, 2017, were still visible.
These Hondurans and Mexican human rights activists accompanying the caravan demanded that buses be made available to reach Mexico, 730 km away. They want to apply for transitional licenses before returning to the United States. For the moment, their request has not been heard.
Fearing an “invasion” of his country by these Central American migrants, President Donald Trump will deploy more than 5,200 soldiers on the US-Mexico border, adding to the 2100-strong National Guard already mobilized.
“If they ask for asylum, we will detain them until their case is examined. We will keep them, we will build tent cities, we will set up tents everywhere there, “the US president said Monday evening.
Aaron Larkin is the senior editor for Oracle Savvy. Aaron has been working as a journalist for nearly over a decade having published pieces many publications including the Orange County Register and the Huffing Post. Aaron is based in Los Angeles and covers issues affecting his city and state. When he’s not busy in the newsroom, Aaron enjoys rock climbing..
