Almost 2,000 undocumented migrants from Central America, Cuba and Haiti left the city of Tapachula, Chiapas, Saturday morning to begin a journey north to Mexico City to seek support from President López Obrador.
The migrants had been stranded in Tapachula, located 45 kilometers from the Guatemala border, for as long as six months, waiting for the National Immigration Institute (INM) to regularize their immigration status to allow them to travel freely to the United States border.
But migrants have not been granted free passage north since Mexico agreed in June to clamp down on undocumented migrants under pressure from the U.S.
“We’re going to Mexico City to speak with President López Obrador,” said human rights activist Luis García Villagrán.
They intend to ask the president to resolve the situation in which thousands of migrants have spent months at the southern border.
The caravan left around 4:30am on Saturday from Miguel Hidalgo park, a departure point for many previous caravans of Central American migrants.
They were being monitored by Federal Police and accompanied by an ambulance.
In a separate incident, two migrants died and two others are missing after a fish boat flipped over in waters off Tonalá, Chiapas, on Friday morning. One of the dead was from Cameroon.
Seven men and one woman were rescued, and were taken to a hospital in Tonalá.
Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)
