By Jesus Garcia
30 Oct 2023, 1:57 PM EDT
Thousands of people who were sent south by the Mexican government from the US border have now joined other immigrants to form a massive caravan of more than 7,000 people.
Most participants have expressed frustration because the Mexican government does not authorize free transit to travel to the United States.
Furthermore, immigrants express their Frustration over the lack of progress at the Latin American Migration Summitwhich was held on October 22, where leaders from several countries, including Cuba and Venezuela, demonstrated against coercive actions towards migrants.
In the mobilization towards the United States, at least six Venezuelan and Honduran men and five women left chained and with white flags to ask for peace and transit documents to be able to leave this “prison” in which they have been stranded for days and months waiting for documentation proving their legal stay in Mexico.
The thousands of foreigners gathered around 06:00 in the morning and began their journey en masse, prepared with umbrellas, cardboard, backpacks and children in their arms in the hope of being able to reach the Basilica of Guadalupe, in the City of Mexico.
In the caravan, made up of migrants mostly from Honduras, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, El Salvador and GuatemalaAbout 3,000 children and women travel at a slow pace, with wheelchairs, walkers and have fled poverty, marginalization, insecurity and gangs in their countries of origin.
Ernesto Fernández and Marli Briseño are a Venezuelan couple who joined this caravan with the aim of reaching the northern border.
“My goal is to be able to reach the United States of America to be able to work there, the situation in Venezuela is tough, due to the political and economic issues we are looking for a better future for me and my wife,” said Ernesto.
The caravan forms in the middle of a intense debate in the US against irregular immigrantsincluding pressure from Republicans to further secure the border.
President Joe Biden’s government has intensified deportation processes and, for example, from May to September expelled more than 300,000 people.
Due to new agreements between the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Biden, it is possible that the caravan will be dissolved somewhere in Mexico.
With information from EFE
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