Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 3 april 2018

Migrant caravan stops in field in southern Mexico

By MARK STEVENSON season protest against the
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Presi- kidnappings, extortion,
dent Donald Trump is warn- beatings and killings suf-
ing about "caravans" of fered by many Central
migrants heading to the American migrants as they
U.S., though the caravan of cross Mexico.
Central American migrants The organized portions of
supposedly moving across the caravans usually don't
Mexico toward the bor- proceed much farther
der was strikingly immobile north than the Gulf coast
Monday. state of Veracruz. Some
The group of about 1,100 migrants, moving as indi-
people, most of them Hon- viduals or in smaller groups,
durans, had been walk- often take buses or trucks
ing along roadsides and from there to the U.S. bor-
train tracks, but they have der. Mexico routinely stops
stopped to camp out in a and deports Central Ameri-
field in the southern Mexico cans, sometimes in num-
state of Oaxaca. They are bers that rival those of the
waiting and getting advice United States. Deportations
on filing for transit or hu- Central American migrants arrive to a sports center during the annual Migrant Stations of the of foreigners dropped from
manitarian visas in Mexico. Cross caravan or "Via crucis," organized by the "Pueblo Sin Fronteras" activist group, as the group 176,726 in 2015 to 76,433 in
While a group of about a makes a few-days stop in Matias Romero, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Monday, April 2, 2018. 2017, in part because few-
couple of hundred men in Associated Press er were believed to have
the march broke off and come to Mexico, and more
hopped a freight train least temporarily. ereignty in enforcing our migrant caravans have were requesting asylum
north on Sunday — proba- It was all pretty undramatic laws," Navarrete Prida said been held in southern Mex- in Mexico. Mexico grant-
bly to try to enter the United — especially compared to Monday. "Of course we will ico for about 10 years. They ed 3,223 asylum requests
States — the rest seem un- 2013 and 2014, when mi- act ... to enforce our immi- began as short processions made in 2016, and 9,626
likely to move until Wednes- grants jammed Mexican gration laws, with no pres- of migrants, some dressed requests filed last year are
day or Thursday. Those are trains heading north — but sure whatsoever from any in biblical garb and carry- either under review or have
probably going to take Trump's angry tweets raised country whatsoever." ing crosses, as an Easter- been accepted.q
buses to the last scheduled hackles in Mexico. Navarette Prida did say he
stop for the caravan, a mi- "Mexico is doing very little, talked Monday with U.S.
grant rights symposium in if not NOTHING, at stopping Homeland Security Secre- Venezuela authorities say
central Puebla state. people from flowing into tary Kirstjen Nielsen. "We
Irineo Mujica, director of Mexico through their South- agreed to analyze the best inmates started deadly jail fire
Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the ern Border, and then into means to handle flows of
activist group behind the the U.S. They laugh at our migration, in accordance CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ised that prison authorities
annual symbolic event, said dumb immigration laws. with each country's laws," — Venezuelan authorities will be held responsible
the caravan would contin- They must stop the big drug Navarrete Prida wrote in his say the blaze that killed even if they didn't instigate
ue only to the city of Pueb- and people flows, or I will Twitter account. 68 people in a police sta- the fire. Five officers includ-
la southeast of Mexico City, stop their cash cow, NAFTA. A Mexican government tion jail likely started when ing the sub-director of the
"but not in a massive way." NEED WALL!" Trump wrote official said the caravans inmates set fire to their police station where the
After the symposium, some in one. "With all of the mon- are tolerated because mi- mattresses. The comments fire happened have been
migrants may continue to ey they make from the U.S., grants have a right under Monday by Chief Prosecu- arrested. All but two of
Mexico's capital, where it hopefully they will stop peo- Mexican law to request tor Tarek William Saab were the dead were detainees.
is easier to make an asylum ple from coming through asylum in Mexico or to re- the first to suggest a cause Some family members of
claim. Mujica said about their country and into ours." quest a humanitarian visa for the last week's horrific those killed have said their
300 to 400 of the migrants Mexico's interior secretary, allowing travel to the U.S. fire in the city of Valencia. loved ones telephoned be-
say they have relatives liv- Alfonso Navarrete Prida, re- border to seek asylum in Saab told Union Radio that fore the fire and said their
ing in Mexico and so may jected such pressure. "We the United States. overcrowding contributed jailers were pouring gas in
consider staying here at will act with complete sov- The "Stations of the Cross"
to the tragedy and prom- the cellblock.q