The first migrant caravan of the year left southern Mexico with a thousand people heading for the United States

On Tuesday, February 28, the first migrant caravan of the yearabout 1,000 people have left Mexico’s southern border for the United States despite the news immigration restrictions applied in the northern country. Migrants have only one goal in mind: to reach the desired country and fight for better life opportunities.

According to initial information, the contingent consisted of migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti and Guatemala, who exactly left Tapachula, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala, having as their first destination Arriaga, the two towns in the state of Chiapas, where they hoped to gather with more people.

It should be noted that some of the migrants carried legal documents issued by the National Institute for Migration (IN M). However, these papers only allow them to stay in the state of Chiapas, while others continue on their way irregularly.

One of the caravan members, identified as Dany González, said EFE the reasons why you have undertaken 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 professor of literature 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 it forced me to leave with about 1,500 dollars that I have obtained to undertake this journey.

González also reported that in Nicaragua the police tried to arrest them and suffered an accident with a group of people he was traveling with and injured his ankle.

This first caravan advances very slowly towards the town of Huixtla, some 45 kilometers from tapewormwhere the immigration authorities repeatedly explained that they had to regularize themselves and return to Tapachula to be issued with a document allowing them to be legally in Chiapas.

Another similar story is that of Kelvin Ochoa, who travels with his wife and son. El joven de 29 años, quien se apoya con una vara sobre la carretera Huehuetán-Huixtla, suffered an accident in a motocicleta al cruzar la Selva del Darién, en la frontera de Panama con Colombia, dude se ruptió la pierna y le colocaron cinco tornillos few months ago.

His 30-year-old wife Elena is his company and helps him at all times, as he needs another operation to fully recover.

“It didn’t keep me awake, so we’re making an effort to move on. It hurts, I can’t stand the pain, just because I can’t stop, I’m afraid that they come back to me, so we dated in this group of people achieve the dream“, he told EFE.

The bone migrants continue on their way and they cling to continue with the caravan, despite the fact that two months have passed 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 by special request. However, he cautioned against deportation immediately in Mexico of the rest that arrives by land and without documents.

The region is experiencing a record migration flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.

Let us recall that during the month of January, the members of the INM and the National Guard dissolved a group of hundreds of migrants stranded for months awaiting procedures in Tapachula, Chiapas state, as they planned to leave for the First caravan of the year.

(With information from EFE)