World News | Migrants crossing Mexico threaten road closures

TAPACHULA (Mexico), April 24 (AP) – About 3,000 migrants walked in a massive protest march in southern Mexico, threatening to block roads or harm themselves on Monday unless the government agreed to negotiate or provide them with public transport. car.

The migrants started on foot on Sunday from the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemala border, and by Monday they reached the town of Huehuetan, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) away.

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Immigrants want to close detention centers like last month’s fire that killed 40 migrants.

Protest organizer Irineo Mújica said migrants would start whipping themselves or blocking highways to force the government to agree to negotiations. These migrants also want exit visas or other documents that would allow them to enter the U.S. border.

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The migrant caravan phenomenon began years ago when activists organized processions during Holy Week — often with religious themes — to dramatize the hardships and needs of immigrants. In 2018, a handful of those involved ended up making it all the way to the U.S. border.

This year’s mass procession began long after Holy Week ended, but Mújica, leader of the Pueblos Sin Fronteras militant group, called it “Viacrucis,” or sites for the procession of crosses, where some migrants carry wooden crosses. Scouring, or hitting yourself with a branch or other object, is sometimes performed during Holy Week processions.

Given the heat, the difficulty of walking the 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) to Mexico City and the fact that many migrants carry babies in prams, they also hope to take buses to bring them to the capital.

Migrants are heading to Mexico City, but in the past many participants in such marches have continued on to the U.S. border, which has almost always been their target. Immigrants mainly come from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

Raúl Gómez Rodriguez, a Honduran immigrant, said: “We asked the government to help us, even if it was just for the children, even if it was just water and food. They should give us the bus so we can move on. OK.”

So far, Mexican authorities have blocked tens of thousands of frustrated migrants in Tapachula using paperwork restrictions and highway checkpoints, making it difficult for them to travel to the U.S. border.

Cuban immigrant Ariel Arias Milán was killed in Tapachula and government detention centers such as Ciudad Juárez on the border with El Paso, Texas on March 27 fires on 12 March) as grounds for protest.

The fire killed 40 migrants. It began when an immigrant allegedly set fire to a foam mattress in protest of the alleged diversion. The fire quickly filled the facility with smoke. No one is letting the immigrants out.

“We protested because they didn’t allow us to leave,” Tapachula, Arias Milán said. “We just want to be allowed to work and live in peace, we want a chance for a better future.”

Immigrants, especially poor immigrants who cannot afford the smugglers’ fees, often see this mass walking or caravan as a way to reach the U.S. border. In 2018 and 2019, the caravan grew in size before authorities in Mexico and Central America began blocking them on highways.

Protesters specifically complained of harassment from Mexico’s National Institute for Migration. Mexican prosecutors said they would charge the immigration agency’s top state official, Francisco Garduño, over the March 27 fire. He is scheduled to appear in court on April 21.

Federal prosecutors said Garduño was negligent in failing to prevent the disaster in Ciudad Juárez despite earlier indications of problems in his institution’s detention center. Prosecutors said the government audit found a “pattern of irresponsibility and repeated omissions” at USCIS.

Six officials from the National Migration Institute, a guard at the center and the Venezuelan immigrant accused of arson have been detained and face homicide charges. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)