Avocado growers protest corruption that allows non-Michoacán fruit into the state

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October 30, 2018

More than 1,000 Michoacán avocado growers set up checkpoints on highways in 11 municipalities yesterday to stop avocados from other parts of Mexico coming in to the state to be exported later to the United States under their exclusive export agreement.

José Luis Mata, representative for a Michoacán avocado growers’ association, told the newspaper El Universal that 70% of avocado orchards are currently on strike due to corruption that allows avocados to enter the state and be shipped to the U.S. market posing as aguacates michoacanos.

Michoacán growers are the only ones in the country who are included in the United States Department of Agriculture certified export program, he said.

Mata said the work stoppage would continue indefinitely until authorities take action to stop the entry of outside avocados.

If the strike continues, a shortage of the fruit is likely to follow, causing prices to increase in both domestic and international markets.

Mata said the practice of sending avocados from other parts of the country into Michoacán to be passed off as a locally-grown product was driving down the cost of the genuine fruit.

Before the imposters were first detected two months ago, trading companies paid producers up to 60 pesos (US $3) per kilo of certified Michoacán avocados but now the best price they get is 20 pesos (US $1), which in turn leads to economic losses and employee layoffs.

The United States is by far the largest export market for Mexican avocados but producers are also increasingly looking to other markets such as China, where sales of the alligator pear are skyrocketing.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Communal landowners mount new protest at Guadalajara airport

By

César Hernández

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October 30, 2018

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Protesters carry a banner calling for payment of money owed to communal landowners.

The ongoing dispute between communal landowners and the federal government over the airport at Guadalajara, Jalisco, has flared up again.

Since last Friday, protesters from the ejido of El Zapote have occupied the airport parking area, allowing vehicles to enter at no charge. They claim they are the legitimate owners of the land on which the airport sits.

They are seeking what they call a fair payment by the federal government for the 307 hectares it expropriated from them in 1950.

Spokesperson Nicolás Vega accused the government of not having “the will to solve the issue and abide by the law.” A court ruled in favor of the landowners in 2016 and ordered the federal government to pay nearly 4 billion pesos ($214.4 million at the time). The federal Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) claims it has already paid in full its debt with the people of El Zapote.

The decades-long conflict has delayed the development of the Guadalajara airport, including the construction of a second runway.

The president of the Western Mexican Council for Foreign Trade lamented the current federal administration’s “lack of political will” to solve the conflict, an issue now in the hands of the next administration.

Miguel Ángel Landeros Volquarts urged the new government to resolve the issue to permit building the new runway.

Business leaders warned last week that the airport faces the possibility of gridlock if expansion doesn’t happen soon. “The airport no longer has the capacity to meet all the demand we have,” said one.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Santa Lucía airport option threatens water supply: environmentalists

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César Hernández

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October 30, 2018

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Santa Lucía air force base: water issues here too.

The people may have spoken in favor of relocating the new Mexico City airport to a military air base, but some environmentalists are not so keen and are urging last week’s airport consultation be repeated.

Representatives of two non-governmental organizations have expressed concern that locating two new runways at the air force base in Santa Lucía, México state, might lead to water supply problems.

The coordinator of the Zeferino Ladrillero Center for Human Rights warns that if the project is not carried out in a sustainable manner, water shortages will threaten the northern area of México state and Mexico City and potentially leave thousands of people without water.

José Antonio Lara Duque also said the original location for the new airport, in Texcoco, poses the same challenges.

Ricardo Obando of Water for All, Water for Life drew from official reports by the National Water Commission to point out that the four most important aquifers in the Valley of Mexico watershed — Texcoco, Mexico City, Chalco-Amecameca and Cuautitlán-Pachuca — are over-exploited.

“. . . over-exploitation is over 800% in Texcoco, while in Pachuca it is 500%.”

He also declared that his organization will demand that the new federal government re-do the public consultation on the new airport because the process “should be informed and free. If it is not done that way, we are going to oppose [the Santa Lucía runways].”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Second caravan of about 2,000 migrants enters Mexico, heads north

By

MND Staff

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October 30, 2018

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A migrant clings to the back of a truck in southern Mexico. alex harrison-cripps

A second migrant caravan made up of as many as 2,000 Central Americans entered Mexico yesterday and began the long march towards the United States border.

The migrants, including many women and children, crossed the Suchiate river, which divides Guatemala from the southern state of Chiapas, and defied a heavy Federal Police presence.

As they waded across the murky river, a police helicopter hovered overhead, creating a strong downwash that made crossing difficult and dangerous.

A 25-year-old Honduran man was swept away by the current and was pulled unconscious from the river before being revived by CPR administered by Federal Police and marines.

Once the migrants reached the Mexican side of the border, they were surrounded by police and immigration agents.

National Immigration Institute (INM) commissioner Gerardo Elías García told them they wouldn’t be detained but had to go to immigration offices to formally register their entry into Mexican territory.

To avoid the possibility of another clash similar to the one on Sunday that left one Honduran man dead, Mexican officials allowed the migrants to leave the immigration office at around 2:00pm to start their journey on foot towards the city of Tapachula, about 40 kilometers away.

The interior secretary said in a statement yesterday that two Honduran men were arrested after one of them attempted to shoot at Federal Police in the town of Ignacio Zaragoza, near the border crossing.

However, the gun failed to fire and no agents were injured, the statement said.

With regard to the death of 26-year-old Henry Díaz Reyes, the Honduran government issued a statement yesterday calling for an investigation into what happened amid differing versions of events from the migrants and Mexican authorities.

“As a government, we reject any form of criminalization and violence against migrants and we request that the incident be investigated,” the Honduran foreign department said.

According to the migrants, Díaz was shot in the head by Federal Police with a rubber bullet as they launched an assault on a border barrier that prevented them from entering Mexico.

However, Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said Sunday that police deployed to the border area didn’t have firearms or any weapons that could fire rubber bullets.

The migrants, however, did have weapons, including guns and molotov cocktails, Navarrete charged.

Meanwhile, representatives of the first caravan of migrants, currently in Oaxaca, yesterday demanded “safe and dignified” transport to Mexico City for its 4,000 exhausted members fleeing poverty and violence in their homelands.

Residents of Zanatepec, Oaxaca, organized vehicles to transport the migrants to Santiago Niltepec yesterday but the federal government has not shown any inclination to assist the caravan with their transit through Mexico.

Instead, the government announced an assistance program offering shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to the Central American migrants but only if they remained in either Chiapas or Oaxaca.

Migrant advocacy group Pueblos Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) has said that it hopes to meet with federal lawmakers and authorities in Mexico City as well as members of the incoming government to discuss migrant rights and the future of the caravan.

Today, the first caravan planned to walk to Juchitán, the commercial hub of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region.

Many migrants remain determined to reach the Mexico-United States border where they intend to apply for asylum despite U.S. President Trump’s threats to stop them at the border.

However, an increasing number of exhausted migrants are becoming disheartened by the long distance still left to travel and appear likely to return home or seek to stay in Mexico.

Hasiel Isamar Hernandez, a 28-year-old mother of three, told the Associated Press that when she heard from her husband that her three-year-old daughter back home had stopped eating because she missed her mother, she knew it was time to turn around.

“Of the friends that I have been with, all want to go back,” she added.

While some migrants have already returned to their country of origin and more look set to do so, others are only in the early stages of their journey.

El Salvador’s immigration agency said that a group of Salvadoran migrants including children and adolescents that entered Guatemala Sunday numbered around 500.

Source: El Universal (sp), Fox News (en), Associated Press (en)

Business slams airport decision: ‘Mickey Mouse consultation, violation of rule of law’

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MND Staff

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October 30, 2018

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mexico city airport — What to do with a partially-built airport?

Killing the new Mexico City International Airport (NAICM) would be “the biggest waste of public resources in the history of the country.”

The assessment by Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) president Gustavo de Hoyos was one of a chorus of criticisms from the private sector following the incoming government’s confirmation yesterday that the US $15-billion project will be cancelled.

De Hoyos also described the public vote on the future of the airport, which concluded Sunday, as a “Mickey Mouse consultation” and a “fragrant violation of the rule of law.”

President-elect López Obrador said the new government will respect the will of the people — who voted overwhelmingly in favor of converting an air force base and upgrading the existing airport and that in Toluca — and cancel the current project.

That move, de Hoyos said, will taint López Obrador’s entire administration, much as the so-called Casa Blanca (White House) corruption scandal tainted the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

“I believe that all Mexicans are deeply worried about this irrational decision. It’s going to cost us 290 billion pesos [US $14.5 billion]. If that comes true, it will be the biggest waste of public resources in the history of this country,” the business leader told the broadcaster Televisa.

De Hoyos charged that the 121 billion pesos (US $6 billion) the new government will be required to pay in compensation exceeds the amount earmarked for any other single government project or program.

“It’s more than the 114 billion pesos the Maya Train is going to cost . . . more than moving the 31 federal secretariats, more than the 118 billion pesos that the “Youths building the future” [apprenticeship scheme] will cost,” he said.

De Hoyos challenged López Obrador to carry out a “truly representative survey” on the airport, which he called the most important public infrastructure project currently under construction in Latin America.

In a separate interview, de Hoyos told the newspaper El Financiero that the private sector will “begin to analyze the different legal scenarios in order to determine if the [cancellation] decision can be legally challenged.”

He also said the decision went against López Obrador’s pledge to “not lie, not betray and not steal.”

Coparmex chief de Hoyos Walther. — Coparmex chief Gustavo de Hoyos.

“. . . First, he told us that the project could be finished with private funds and today he has changed that decision,” de Hoyos said.

“. . . The squandering of public resources already invested in Texcoco is theft from the wealth of all Mexicans.”

Juan Pablo Castañón, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), also described the cancellation of the project as a waste of public resources although his assessment of the damage was a more modest 100 billion to 150 billion pesos (US $5 billion to $7.5 billion).

However, he added that the biggest costs would come from a loss of confidence and certainty in the national economy.

“The transitional government, once it’s the government, will have to clarify how the [airport] contracts . . . will be settled,” he said.

Castañón explained that the contracts for the current project are not exchangeable, meaning that the López Obrador-led government will have to carry out a new tendering process for work at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base, where two new runways are slated to be built.

Incoming transportation secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú said yesterday that the new government will hold talks with the current administration, contractors and other key stakeholders in order to determine the best path forward with regard to canceling the current project.

Alejandro Ramírez, president of the powerful Mexican Business Council, said Mexico is losing the opportunity to have “a true air hub,” while Mónica Flores of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico said that the opportunity to generate a large number of jobs had been lost.

Attention is now turning to what will happen to the new airport site, which is located on an ancient lake bed in the municipality of Texcoco, México state.

Federico Patiño, general manager of the group developing the new airport, said the site will have to be rehabilitated but it is not the group’s responsibility to do so.

Jiménez Espriú said that the incoming government will collaborate with federal, México state and Mexico City authorities and meet with experts and citizens’ groups to determine the fate of the site.

Although authorities said that the new airport would be one of the most sustainable in the world, its impact on the environment has been denounced by a range of organizations.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Pueblos Mágicos: they might be magical but many are poor all the same

By

MND Staff

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October 29, 2018

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Arteaga, Coahuila, saw the biggest increase in poverty levels.

Inclusion in Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos program is supposed to help improve a town’s economy by boosting tourism, attracting investment and generating jobs.

But not all towns designated as magical have seen the benefits that are expected to follow. In fact, some of them have become poorer.

During 2012, the final year of former president Felipe Calderón’s six-year administration, 34 new magical towns were named, more than in any other year.

In the following years, poverty levels declined in 23 of them but poverty increased in 11, statistics from the social development agency Coneval show.

The biggest increase in poverty occurred in Arteaga, Coahuila, where the proportion of the population considered impoverished grew from just over 25% in 2010 to 41% in 2015.

Poverty also increased in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, known as the city of jacarandas, where the percentage of residents living in poverty increased from 46% to 53% in the same five-year period despite the magical designation.

Metepec, México state, saw the third highest increase in poverty between 2010 and 2015, with rates increasing from 25% of the population to 31.6%.

Other towns where poverty increased after receiving the sought-after magical moniker in 2012 are Yuriria, Guanajuato; Batopilas, Chihuahua; Loreto, Baja California Sur; Angangueo and Tacámbaro, both in Michoacán; and Cholula, Chignahuapan and Pahuatlán, all of which are in Puebla.

Francisco Madrid, director of the faculty of tourism at Anáhuac University, told the newspaper El Universal that at the end of Calderón’s administration a lot of towns were included in the Pueblos Mágicos program despite not meeting the inclusion requirements.

They include having a municipal tourism department and the implementation of a tourism development plan. Each town receives 5.2 million pesos (US $260,000) in federal funding on an annual basis.

There are now 121 magical towns in Mexico after the addition earlier this month of 10 new destinations.

Of those that received the designation in 2012, Mapimí, Durango, has seen the biggest improvement in terms of the well-being of citizens, with poverty levels cut from 61% in 2010 to 40% in 2015.

Poverty also decreased significantly in Huichapan, Hidalgo, and Viesca, Coahuila.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Punctuality bonuses for workers cost 40 billion pesos over 5 years

By

MND Staff

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October 29, 2018

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There's a bonus for those who get to work on time.

The federal government paid employees 40.7 billion pesos (US $2 billion) in punctuality bonuses between 2012 and 2017, responses to freedom of information requests show.

The newspaper El Universal determined that officials who work in 40 secretariats, the federal Congress, autonomous government-affiliated organizations and public universities received the extra payments for consistently arriving at work on time.

The annual peso-figure payout for the benefit peaked last year at just under 9 billion pesos (US $449 million).

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the State Workers’ Social Security Institute (ISSTE) have paid out the largest amounts.

IMSS, which pays bonuses to punctual workers twice monthly, is by far the most generous provider of the benefit, rewarding its employees with an additional 30.8 billion pesos (US $1.5 billion) during the five-year period coinciding with the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

The CFE has paid out 5.5 billion pesos (US $274.5 million) in punctuality bonuses during the same period.

Among the other departments that reward their employees for showing up on time and/or having clean slates in terms of absenteeism are the secretariats of Labor and Social Welfare, Economy, Public Education and the Navy along with the federal consumer protection agency (Profeco).

The Secretariat of the Interior, the Bank of México, the National Human Rights Commission and the Office of the President all told El Universal that they don’t pay the bonuses.

President-elect López Obrador, who takes office on December 1, has said that punctuality bonuses and other benefits currently paid to federal officials will be cut as part of his government’s austerity push.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Behind the scenes at Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade

By

Susannah Rigg

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October 29, 2018

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Participants wait for the start of Sunday's Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City. — Participants wait for the start of Sunday's parade in Mexico City. susannah rigg

What began because of the 2015 James Bond film Spectre has now taken on a form of its own in Mexico City.

Sunday’s Day of the Dead parade celebrated its third year, having kicked off as the opening scenes of the film in which a parade of giant skeletons and crowds of people in masks and costumes moved through the historic center.

The filmmakers created the huge parade, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Mexico City before, and with it they sparked imaginations. The following year the tourism board decided to recreate the event and it has fast become known as a part of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico’s capital.

This year it attracted some 1.5 million people who lined the streets to watch as the vibrant and colorful spectacle passed by.

While some lament the inauthenticity of the parade, I couldn’t help wondering how those involved felt about being part of it. In the lead-up to the event I headed backstage to talk to the participants and find out what it meant for them.

As I arrived at the tents set back on the outskirts of Polanco at 11:00am, I was greeted by hundreds of people already dressed in their outfits and with full make-up on for a parade that would not start for another five hours. The excitement and nervous energy was palpable and groups sat waiting for their chance to dance through the streets of the city.

The make-up tent was full of artists armed with black, white and gold paint spray guns to cover participants’ faces and bodies in a thin even color and convert them into their characters. Others painted shadows on to the dancers’ faces, creating the illusion of skulls, hollowed-out cheeks and eyes. The make-up tent had an intense atmosphere. Focused professionals painting one face after another after another.

There were tents full of costumes. Lines and lines of skulls in different designs and varying sizes, sombreros, wings and even colorful bicycles. Those in charge of the costumes counted their supplies and waited patiently to hand them out as they neared the start time.

This year four states were invited to join in on the action. Groups from Oaxaca, Aguascalientes, Michoacán and San Luis Potosí made their way to Mexico City to be part of the parade.

I was drawn to the tent of participants from Oaxaca. The women were sitting together in traditional blouses and colorful skirts.

“We are so proud to be here. It’s our roots,” said Marisol and Xóchitl from behind a face painted in a skull-like form. They had traveled from the town of Juquila.

“We want to show that Oaxaca is more beautiful than many people think.”

They described how excited they were to bring their traditions from Oaxaca and show them to a much wider audience in Mexico City. Their enthusiasm showed as they smiled and laughed, perhaps a little nervous to parade along the streets of Mexico’s capital, and to be interviewed, but delighted to be there.

As is traditional in most Oaxacan parades, the brass band was present. The Donají Band, also from Juquila, was warming up, playing traditional songs heard in the calendas, as parades are called in Oaxaca. I heard them playing in beautiful harmony, and shouts of “Viva Oaxaca” rang out from behind the tents.

All the states invited to join the parade have rich traditions of Day of the Dead. San Luis Potosí was a last-minute addition to the program but its rituals at this time of year are fascinating.

“We are tricking death,” one male dancer dressed as a grandmother told me. “The men dress as women and the women dress as men so that death can’t touch us.”

In a tradition that I was told lasts some two months, the dancers start with a ritual on September 29 when they ask for the spirits to be allowed to return to earth. The final offerings to dismiss the souls are made on November 30.

“For us, it is an honor to be here,” a dancer from the Jacarandos group said. “It’s the first time that they have invited us and we are proud to represent La Huasteca Potosina.”

As he posed for photos in the intricately carved mask of an elderly lady while holding on to a walking frame, it was hard to remember that there was a young man behind the costume.

Dancers walked by in traditional folkloric-dance outfits from Jalisco, others in black dresses topped with silver geometric shapes swarmed by in a large group. There was a whole tent of Fridas, each group of about 20 inspired by a different one of Frida Kahlo’s paintings.

“We are the painting with the monkey,” two participants wearing headdresses made of huge leaves and leaf print skirts said. “Later we will dance with the monkeys on our shoulders.”

A young girl from Mexico City, Andrea Pérez, was having her hair done by her mother, who was standing outside the fence that cordoned the area off to the public.

“I am pan de muerto (Day of the Dead bread),” Pérez said. “Later I will put the bread headdress on.”

[soliloquy id="64251"]

It was Perez’s third time in the parade and each year she has had a different outfit. In 2017 she was a corpse bride. It was clear that she loves being part of it and her mom smiled and looked on with pride.

A few people dressed as butterflies fluttered by, the participants from Michoacán.

While there is some criticism of the parade for not being truly traditional, backstage there was nothing but excitement and joy from the participants who were delighted to be part of this celebration of their culture.

Later that afternoon the streets filled with onlookers trying to get the best spot. Many had their faces painted, others came in costume. The crowd oohed and aahed as the boats of skeletons rowed by, dancers with neon wings fluttered past and a large bed featuring an enormous Frida in repose moved through the street. The huge Bond-inspired skeletons made their way along Paseo de la Reforma to the delight of the crowd.

While the tradition might be a new one in Mexico City, the invitation to different states to bring their own deeply-rooted rituals allowed onlookers to experience the important and longstanding traditions of their country in a way that they may never have been able to before. It seems like this new tradition might be here to stay.

Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.

Mexico wins U-23 baseball title after scoreless nine innings

By

Tony Richards

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October 29, 2018

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Mexico's U-23 baseball champs and their trophy.

Mexico beat Japan 2-1 in a 10-inning final yesterday to win the U-23 Baseball World Cup.

The World Baseball Softball Association said the game could go down in history as “the epitome of the world title game.”

The teams went into the 10^th inning with no score, although Mexico had the best chances to score in the regular nine innings.

Mexico’s starting pitcher held Japan, which went into the tournament with a .357 team batting average, to no hits in the first five.

“If you play a team as good as Japan, you’re not going to accomplish much if you can’t locate your pitches. I was fortunate enough to throw a lot of strikes tonight,” Carlos Morales said.

Mexico scored its two runs in the top of the 10^th. Japan went on to score a run but the last batter flied out with two out and the bases loaded.

Mexico becomes the third champion of the biennial tournament, which was launched in 2014.

Yesterday’s game was played before 6,500 fans in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Mexico News Daily

Migrants’ assault on barrier leaves one dead; hundreds attempt to cross Suchiate river

By

MND Staff

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October 29, 2018

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Migrants cross the river today between Guatemala and Mexico.

A Honduran migrant was killed yesterday after allegedly being shot in the head with a rubber bullet during a clash with Mexican police at the southern border.

The death of 26-year-old Henry Díaz Reyes occurred as a group of migrants launched an assault on a border barrier that prevented them from entering Mexico via a bridge across the Suchiate river between Guatemala and Chiapas.

Migrants threw rocks and used sticks against the police after they toppled the metal barricade. Police responded with the use of tear gas which was effective in dispersing the migrants.

The latter also threw rocks at a Black Hawk helicopter that hovered above the scene.

In a video of the clash, migrants can be heard shouting “they’re shooting, they’re shooting!” after explosions ring out.

Guatemalan firefighters later confirmed that Díaz had been killed by a blow to the head.

Mexican authorities rejected the migrants’ claim that he was shot by Federal Police, who have been deployed to bolster security in the southern border region as Central American migrants fleeing poverty and violence continue to seek entry to Mexico en route to the United States.

Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida told a press conference yesterday that police deployed to the border didn’t have firearms or any weapons that could fire rubber bullets.

The migrants, however, did have weapons, including guns and Molotov cocktails, Navarrete charged.

“The Mexican government rejects the acts of violence on the border with Guatemala, and reiterates that the only way to enter Mexico is to obey immigration laws,” he said.

Today Navarrete said there is information indicating that criminal groups have penetrated the caravan. Further information is expected from Guatemala authorities regarding what firearms they have and what their intentions are. They have evidence of individuals preparing molotov cocktails, leading to speculation that there might be additional violent incursions at the border.

Prior to yesterday’s clash, the caravan broke through a Guatemalan police barricade, responding to the use of tear gas with whatever objects came to hand.

They then asked Mexican officials to give them temporary permission to enter the country and travel north.

But immigration officials insisted that they enter by the rules so as to be processed by agents.

Three hundred migrants were permitted entry but many more remained on the Guatemalan side of the border last night.

This morning, several hundred tried to cross the Suchiate river to enter Mexico but were blocked by Federal Police, the Associated Press reported.

More continued to make the attempt this afternoon. Hundreds of men, women and children were intent on crossing at shortly after noon while Federal Police officers waited on the other side.

[wpgmza id=”103″]

Agency reports indicated that some were carrying molotov cocktails.

Meanwhile, the first caravan of migrants arrived today in Santiago Niltepec, a town in Oaxaca’s Isthmus region located about 58 kilometers from the city of Juchitán.

The mayor of Zanatepec, where the caravan stayed last night, said the community had organized vehicles to help transport the migrants.

“We are helping our brothers from other countries with food, water, and transportation,” Ramiro Nolasco said. “It is going to be very little, compared to what they need.”

The municipality itself provided 20 of its vehicles, from police patrol cars to ambulances.

President Peña Nieto announced a program Friday called “Estás en tu Casa” (You are at Home), offering shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to the Central American migrants on the condition that they formally apply for refugee status with the National Immigration Institute (INM) and remain in either Chiapas or Oaxaca.

Navarrete Prida said yesterday that 1,895 migrants had applied for refugee status and that temporary identity numbers, which allow for residence and employment, had been issued to more than 300 people.

Most migrants, however, remain determined to reach the Mexico-United States border where they intend to apply for asylum despite U.S. President Trump’s threats against the caravan.

“Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border,” Trump wrote on Twitter today.

“Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”

United States officials said today that the military is preparing to send around 5,000 additional troops to secure the country’s southern border. The deployment is expected to start on November 5.

Source: Milenio (sp), Associated Press (en)