Mexican Authorities Break Up Copycat Caravan
A mini-caravan of approximately 300 marchers was stopped Friday just north of Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
Police said that about 100 people were arrested and face deportation. The rest of the group, estimated at between 200 and 300 people, dissolved as the arrests took place, according to the Los Angeles Times.
One migrant was killed in a clash with police, KTLA reported.
The clash took place in the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman, where members of the first caravan successfully made it past police and entered Mexico.
Guatemalan authorities said a 26-year-old Honduran died after being hit on the head with a rubber bullet.
Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said his troops were not armed with anything that could have killed the migrant.
He said Mexican authorities were attacked with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks and that some migrants had guns and firebombs.
Fight broke out in Tapanatepec when migrants became angry at man who told them to line up for food
— josie fiorda #GoldStandard (@JosieFiorda) October 29, 2018
On Sunday, a group of about 300 people left San Salvador in El Salvador to make the trek to the U.S.
One commentator said the only thing different from usual migration is that the group is traveling together.
“El Salvador experiences a migration dynamic where 200 to 300 people migrate each day,” said Cesar Rios, director of the Salvadoran Institute for Migration, according to The Washington Post. “A caravan is the visibility of this hidden reality.”
Although the United States has urged Central American nations to prevent migrants form trying to reach the U.S., El Salvador Minister of Justice and Public Security Mauricio Landaverde said that “mobility is a reality and a right.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said on Sunday that migrants laboring to reach the U.S. are heading for disappointment.
.@SecNielsen on #Caravan: “This caravan is not getting in. There is a legal way to enter this country. Those who choose to enter illegally will be stopped…My general message to this caravan is: ‘Do not come. You will not be allowed in.'” pic.twitter.com/mdxoWo0L9V
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) October 28, 2018
The larger migrant caravan, which is about 1,000 miles from the U.S. border, began moving northward again Monday, KTRK reported.
The caravan of about 7,000 people had stopped Sunday for what was variously reported as a planned rest or a response to a report that a child had been abducted, The Washington Times reported.
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