Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – On Tuesday, February 28, the first migrant caravan of mostly Central Americans left the southern border of Mexico with approximately a thousand people heading to the United States, despite the new immigration restrictions applied in the country. Migrants have only one goal in mind: to reach the United States and fight for better life opportunities.
According to initial reports, the caravan was made up of migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, and Guatemala, who left Tapachula, on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, with Arriaga as their first destination, both cities in the state of Chiapas, where they hoped to group up with more people.
Some of the migrants carried legal documents issued by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM). However, those papers only allow them to remain in the state of Chiapas, while others continue on their way without proper documentation.
One of the members of the caravan, identified as Dany González, told EFE the reasons why he embarked on this journey. Dany left Venezuela on February 14 to look for work in the United States and once settled there, to be able to send money to his wife and daughter.
“I am a Literature teacher in Venezuela, I earned $7 dollars a month, which was enough to buy 7 kilos of rice a month, from there to try to survive, but that forced me to leave with about $1,500 dollars that I obtained to undertake this journey.”
González also reported that in Nicaragua the Police tried to stop them and suffered an accident along with a group of people with whom he travels and injured his ankle.
This first caravan advances very slowly towards the municipality of Huixtla, about 45 kilometers from Tapachula, where the immigration authorities have explained on various occasions that they must regularize and return to Tapachula to be issued a document that allows them to be legally present in Chiapas.
Another similar story is that of Kelvin Ochoa, who is traveling with his wife and son. The 29-year-old, who leans on a stick on the Huehuetán-Huixtla highway, suffered a motorcycle accident while crossing the Darien Jungle, on the Panama-Colombia border, where he broke his leg and five screws were placed some months ago.
His 30-year-old wife Elena is his company and helps him at all times since he needs a new operation to fully recover.
“We are making the effort to keep going. It hurts, I can’t stand the pain, but I don’t stop, I’m afraid they’ll return me, so we have come out together in this group of people to achieve the dream,” he told EFE.
The migrants continue on their way with the caravan, despite the fact that two months have elapsed since the new immigration restrictions imposed by the United States, which at the time would have announced the monthly reception of 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans through a special request. However, they warned of the immediate deportation to Mexico of the rest who arrive by land and without documents.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
During the month of January, members of the INM and the Mexican National Guard dissolved a group with hundreds of migrants who had been stranded for months waiting for procedures in Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, since they planned to leave in the first caravan of the year.
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