Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 11 June 2019

Central Americans pursue US dream despite Mexico crackdown

By SONIA PEREZ “They don’t receive you
Associated Press well.”
SAN MARCOS, Guatemala And the journey itself is
(AP) — A near-death expe- wrought with perils. “It’s
rience in the Arizona des- not, grab your backpack
ert a year ago won’t deter and go,” Mendez warns.
Francisco Pérez from an- Two Honduran migrants
other attempt to migrate told The Associated Press
to the U.S., nor will an in- on Sunday that they were
creased police presence in robbed by Mexican officials
southern Mexico. of the little cash they had
The 23-year-old Guatema- while on a bridge between
lan teacher and auto me- Guatemala and Mexico.
chanic hopes to set out The migrants jumped into
again soon to repay the the Suchiate River to flee
$7,000 he owes from his first from the officials, who they
trip, when he and two oth- said confiscated their iden-
er young men got lost for a tification documents, beat
week in the desert before them and asked them for
being rescued by the U.S. bribes to pass into Mexico.
border patrol. “There’s tremendous cor-
On the seventh day, fac- ruption here,” said one of
ing severe dehydration, the In this June 8, 2019, photo, people wait for a bus at the terminal in San Marcos, Guatemala. the men, Jose Romero,
group resorted to drinking Associated Press fighting back tears. “It’s sad
their own urine. “In the end I lost every- courts. Thousands of Cen- gether to address the root to see all the Central Amer-
“Each of us urinated in a thing,” Perez said. tral Americans have also causes of migration rather ican countries, instead of
bottle and then strained Mexico has promised to applied for asylum to start than just enforcement. being united and helping
it with the corner of our deploy 6,000 National new lives in Mexico. Not far from San Marcos, in us, they take the little that
pants,” said Perez, rubbing Guard troops to its south- On Friday, Mexican officials the mountain hamlet of La we have.” Romero said his
his hands together as he re- ern border on Monday to vowed to step up migration Unión Los Mendoza, about hometown of San Pedro
called the day he thought deter Central Americans enforcement to avoid U.S. one in three people has mi- Sula has become too vio-
would be his last. from trekking toward the tariffs on all Mexican im- grated, according to com- lent and that work there is
Perez spent two days in a American dream. About ports. Increased enforce- munity leader Genaro Mé- scarce. He said he’d take
U.S. hospital before being 1 percent of Guatemala’s ment could mean more ndez. The rural town of 600 asylum from Mexico or any
returned to Guatemala. population of some 16 mil- inspections of buses, raids families has dirt roads that other country willing to of-
During his short stay in Ari- lion people have left the on hotels and arrests to turn to mud during the rainy fer him refuge.
zona, though, he caught country this year, part of a disrupt people-smuggling season. Most of its residents “We’re honest, clean peo-
a glimpse of houses with wave of Central Americans networks. Last week, Mex- subsist on beans, corn and ple, determined to work,”
manicured lawns, orderly fleeing poverty, violence ico arrested two migration other food that they can Romero said.
roads and fancy stores. and drought. activists and froze the ac- grow. Most homes lack run- Back in Pérez’s hometown
Those images are like a si- U.S. Border Patrol agents counts of more than two ning water. of San Marcos, there are
ren’s song, calling him to apprehended 132,887 mi- dozen people alleged to Méndez himself spent 18 restaurants, schools, stores
what he believes would be grants in May, the highest have organized caravans. years working in the U.S. as and a picturesque cen-
a better life. monthly figure in more than “We are really in front of an electrician. He decided tral plaza rimmed by misty
Before setting out for the a decade. Many Central a humanitarian tragedy,” to remain in San Marcos af- mountains. But the money
U.S., he earned $100 a American migrants in re- Mexico’s ambassador to ter he was deported for a he can earn there, he said,
month as a teacher and cent months have been the U.S., Martha Bárcena, second time, in 2016. would be barely enough
had a girlfriend. Now she requesting asylum. Mexico told CBS News’ Face the Now, young men from this to get by. Grinding poverty
is with somebody else and has accepted more than Nation on Sunday. indigenous Mam communi- sends many in Guatemala
he’s helping out in his fa- 10,000 U.S. asylum seekers Most Central American ty come to the 43-year-old in search of higher incomes
ther’s auto repair shop in his since January under a pro- migrants come from rural Méndez for advice on how in the U.S. Pérez’s own fa-
hometown of San Marcos, gram that requires migrants areas, Bárcena noted, sug- to make it up north. ther lived in the U.S. for nine
just a few miles from the to wait in Mexico while their gesting that Mexico and “The laws are a little hard” years before being deport-
border with Mexico. cases wind through U.S. the U.S. should work to- in the U.S., he tells them. ed. q

Strike paralyzes Haiti, protesters

demand president’s ouster

Associated Press shuttered on Monday liament session. The strike
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) as groups of protesters comes one day after thou-
— Opposition leaders in blocked roads and set piles sands of protesters clashed
Haiti have launched a two- of tires ablaze across Port- with police, with two peo-
day strike that has para- au-Prince. Some protesters ple reported killed and five
lyzed the country’s capital burned cars belonging to injured. Protesters demand-
as protesters demand the a local radio station and ing further investigation
resignation of President Jo- accused the news media into the fate of funds that
venel Moise amid corrup- of working for the govern- resulted from subsidized oil
tion allegations. ment. Public transporta- shipments from Venezu-
A protester yells anti-government slogans in Port-au-Prince, Schools, businesses and tion was suspended, and ela under the Petrocaribe
Haiti, Sunday, June 9, 2019. government offices were officials postponed a Par-
Associated Press program.q