Migrant caravan arrives reduced to the state of Veracruz

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JESÚS CARRANZA, VERACRUZ, 16NOVIEMBRE2021.- Después de recorrer más de 217km, el día de hoy la Caravana Migrante entró al estado de Veracruz por el poblado de Jesús Carranza para continuar su camino hacia Coatzacoalcos. A las entradas del estado se observaba un operativo de Guardia Nacional, Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), SEDENA, Fuerza Civil y policías estatal. Sin embargo, los elementos simplemente invitaron a los integrantes de la Caravana a adquirir sus permisos humanitarios para residir por un año en el territorio nacional. FOTO: GALO CAÑAS/CUARTOSCURO.COM

The caravan has been reducing its number of members, which reached approximately 6,000 people

  • The main reason is that many of them accepted the offers of the authorities to receive visitor cards for humanitarian reasons and permanent resident.

The migrant caravan that tries to travel through Mexico from the south to the northern border entered Veracruz on Tuesday, the third state they have set foot on since their departure on October 23 from the border city of Tapachula, Chiapas.

“Goodbye, Oaxaca, goodbye!” Exclaimed a migrant raising his hands in the direction of the arch that divides the two states and which says “Welcome to Veracruz”.

The last stop of the migrants – mostly Central Americans – in Oaxaca was in the town of Nuevo Ubero, belonging to the municipality of Matías Romero.

The caravan has been reducing its number of members, which reached approximately 6,000 people. The main reason is that many of them accepted offers from the authorities to receive humanitarian and permanent resident visitor cards.

In addition, they begin to suffer the ravages of the arduous walks, for which the state authorities of Oaxaca have set up a mobile clinic to serve them.

On this stopover in Matías Romero, the organizers of the caravan informed them that upon entering Veracruz a checkpoint from the National Migration Institute (INM) was waiting for them. “Let’s rest, let’s rest, we have a strong roadblock ahead,” they shared.

UNCERTAIN OFFERING

After the break, the approximately 1,000 migrants – according to Civil Protection estimates – advanced and arrived at an INM checkpoint as they advanced the first kilometer in Veracruz, where at least 50 agents guarded by the National Guard were waiting for them to “invite” them to regularize their stay. in Mexico.

“In an orderly and respectful manner, he invites them to carry out their regularization of stay in this country so that in this way (…) they can receive a card that allows them to remain freely in the national territory,” said an immigration agent through a megaphone.

The message irritated the migrants, who stopped their walk to shout slogans of rejection of this offer. “Get out, get out! Let them go! ”They exclaimed.

One of the activists accompanying the caravan, Irineo Mujica from Pueblo Sin Fronteras, demanded from INM agents that these cards should be offered in Tapachula.

“They don’t believe in it, they have beaten us, they have scorned us. So that they offer you this, you don’t believe it. They themselves have distorted these humanitarian cards, how can you believe people who have done us a lot of harm? ”, Said the activist.

However, at least a dozen migrants turned themselves in at this checkpoint, like Marlo, from Honduras.

“I hope to God that they really give me that card without needing anything,” he said, and the response of the INM delegate in Veracruz Roberto González López was “for tomorrow you will have the card.”

In an interview, the delegate ruled out that the INM operation on said road had been mounted to stop the advance of the caravan.

The protest by the migrants continued for about 20 minutes and finally they continued on their way without major incidents.

“They are not being stopped, we simply gave them water, we gave medical attention to those who were ill, (…) all the way they have been allowed to pass only on foot is the only requirement,” explained the official.

In fact, he said, a child was treated who was unwell and had a cough that turned out to have bronchitis.

The migrant caravan plans to arrive this Tuesday in the vicinity of the Veracruz municipality of Jesús Carranza and resume its path tomorrow in the third state that it crosses in Mexico.

The INM pointed out that as of Monday 1,479 migrants left the caravan, mostly women and children, to regularize their stay in the country. And he recalled his invitation to regularize the migratory status of migrants and give them refuge in the country.

The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “found” more than 1.5 million illegal immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.

This group was launched after the Mexican authorities thwarted the advance of four migrant caravans in the first days of September that left precisely from Tapachula, a Chiapas municipality on the border with Guatemala.

Mexico has detected more than 190,000 undocumented immigrants from January to September, about triple the number in 2020, in addition to having deported almost 74,300, according to the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

Source: efe.com, noticieros.televisa.com

Veracruz Daily Post