Thousands from migrant caravan rest in southern Mexico

Latin America

There are still about 16000 kilometers to go for more than seven thousand Central American migrants trying to make it to the U.S. border. Many of them are now resting in a small town in southern Mexico.

A few dozen of them have agreed to return to Honduras. CGTN’s Franc Contreras reported from Huixtla.

It was a day of rest and recuperation after traveling nearly 780 kilometers, much of that distance by foot. The Honduran migrants stopped to bathe in a local river.

The migrant caravan paused in the southern Mexican town of Huixtla, located in Chiapas state. The tropical heat was taking its toll on them. It was the first time in over a week that they had time to stop, rest, bathe themselves, wash their clothes and taking advantage of it before they move away for this small Mexican town.

Forty-year-old Celio Arteaga was making his first attempt to reach the United States with no immigration papers. He hopes to be able to send money back to his wife and children in Hondruas. “I have four children. One is here with me, and the other three are back home. All of them were in school. But getting an education in Honduras means spending lots of money,” said Arteaga.

Huixtla is a rural town with a weak economy. Still, residents were handing out food and drinks to the migrants for free.

The town’s mayor, Jose Luis Laparra Calderon, had been in office for just weeks. He belongs to the Morena Party, which won the presidential election in July. Laparra expected the U.S. president to use this situation for electoral gains.

“He will take this as a threat to U.S. national security. But these people have no bombs. They only bring a desire to work,” said the mayor.

On the scorching hot day, the migrants took time to heal their blistered feet and consider whether to continue traveling down the long and potentially dangerous road ahead, or stay in Mexico.

Mexico’s interior ministry said that a little more than one thousand Hondurans in the caravan have decided to seek asylum in Mexico as refugees fleeing violence and poverty back home.