AZMEX I3 28-10-18

AZMEX I3 28 OCT 2018


Migrant caravan regroups to the south of Mexico between attempts to block it
Writing Without Borders

http://www.jornada.com.mx/sin-fronteras/2018/10/28/se-reagrupa-caravana-migrante-al-sur-de-mexico-entre-intentos-por-bloquearla-1822.html

AP continues its march the caravan in Oaxaca.jpg
Photo / AP

Tapanatepec, Mexico, October 28 .- The caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants who heads to the United States put a pause in their march this Sunday, in the Mexican town of Tapanatepec, to regroup after Saturday the rumor of the robbery of a The boy agitated the crowd and mobilized the regional police.

Hundreds of Mexican riot police suspended the blockade they implemented on a bridge on Saturday, allowing the caravan to continue advancing on the United States.

Federal agents concluded the operation after representatives of the National Human Rights Commission told police that a rural stretch of road without shade, toilets or water was not an adequate place for migrants to weigh a government offer of asylum in Mexico, the reason for the police blockade.

The police boarded buses and continued on the road, while the migrants burst into cheers and pledged to continue advancing to the United States despite the fact that US President Donald Trump warned that he will not allow them to enter.

"We had decided in assembly to leave this morning towards Niltepec but decided to rest and reinforce the unity of the migratory movement," said Gina Garibo, of the organization Pueblos Sin Fronteras, which has coordinated this and other caravans.

On Saturday night the rumor that they had stolen a child caused dozens of migrants to run to the door of the church in Tapanatepec, where other people managed to protect the man accused of the fact.

Police from the state of Oaxaca, to which Tapanatepec belongs, took the individual to protect him from the crowd, added Garibo, for whom the episode "was an act of provocation."

"We want to avoid at all costs giving reasons for the police to make an operation" that leads to massive deportation, he added.

"We do not have to fall for the provocation of violence, do not you think that (the rumor of the child's theft) was something sent from outside to make us look bad before the whole world?", Explained the Nicaraguan Alexander Martínez in the assembly held Sunday morning in the Plaza de Tanatepec.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto launched a program on Friday titled "You are at home" that offers medical assistance, education and even temporary work to undocumented Central Americans, but with the condition that they apply for shelter and remain in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

But the members of the caravan -in their great majority Hondurans, although there are other Central Americans- voted the same Friday by show of hands to arrive to Mexico City to ask for an immigration permit that allows them to travel freely through this country, even to reach the border with the United States.

On Saturday morning, the caravan was stopped on the road between Arriaga and Tapanatepec by a fence of the federal police and officials of the National Institute of Migration who were instructed to ensure that the migrants know the details of the president's program.

The human column will resume its journey to the small town of Niltepec at dawn on Monday.

With information of AFP and AP

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