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U.S. NEWS Monday 29 october 2018
Migrant caravan rests; 2nd group seeks entry into Mexico

By CHRISTOPHER SHER- despite an offer of refuge
MAN, Associated Press in Mexico.
TAPANATEPEC, Mexico Mexican President Enrique
(AP) — Thousands of Cen- Pena Nieto launched a
tral American migrants program Friday dubbed
took a break Sunday on “You are home,” which
their caravan’s long jour- promises shelter, medical
ney through southern Mex- attention, schooling and
ico while vowing to press jobs to Central Americans
ahead toward the U.S. who agree to stay in the
border roughly 1,000 miles southern Mexico states of
away. Hundreds more mi- Chiapas or Oaxaca, far
grants pushed for entry into from the U.S. border.
Mexico at the Guatemala Mexico’s Interior Ministry
border. said Saturday that tem-
The new group of migrants, porary identity numbers
who called themselves a had been issued to 111
second caravan, gathered migrants, which would al-
on a bridge after forcing low them to stay and work
their way through a gate at in Mexico. The ministry said
the Guatemalan end in the pregnant women, chil-
town of Tecun Uman. dren and the elderly were
At the same time, about among those who had
300 Salvadorans departed Migrants walk along the road after Mexico’s federal police briefly blocked the highway in an at- joined the program and
from San Salvador hoping tempt to stop a thousands-strong caravan of Central American migrants from advancing, outside were now being attended
to make their way to the the town of Arriaga, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. Associated Press. at shelters.q
U.S. as a group.
Some of the migrants in megaphone asked people
the initial caravan, now to wait their turn.
estimated at 4,000 peo- Some hurled insults at the
ple, rested on Sunday in man with the megaphone,
the shade of tarps strung then they attacked him,
across the town plaza Medina said. Police res-
or picked up trash in the cued the man as he was
southern Mexico town of being beaten and took
Tapanatepec, population him to a hospital for treat-
7,500. Others soaked them- ment, though his condition
selves in the nearby Novil- wasn’t immediately clear.
lero river. On Sunday, several in the
Tensions from a long trek caravan took to micro-
through searing heat with phones to denounce the
tenuous supplies of food attack.
and other goods spilled “Is that the way we’re go-
over Saturday night when ing to always behave?”
a dispute in a food line a woman from Honduras
devolved into a beating. asked.
Many in the caravan have Others complained of trek-
been on the road for more kers smoking marijuana or
than two weeks, since the warned that images of litter
group first formed in San and uneaten food made
Pedro Sula, Honduras. them appear disrespectful.
Raul Medina Melendez, se- The group planned to
curity chief for the tiny mu- set out early Monday for
nicipality in Oaxaca state, Niltepec, 70 kilometers (43
said the town was distribut- miles) to the northwest in
ing sandwiches and water Oaxaca state.
to migrants camped in the The caravan still must travel
central square Saturday 1,000 miles (1,600 kilome-
night when a man with a ters) to reach the near-
est U.S. border crossing at
McAllen, Texas. The trip
could be twice as long if
the 4,000 or so migrants
head for the Tijuana-San
Diego frontier, as another
caravan did earlier this
year. Only about 200 in
that group made it to the
border.
Most of the migrants in the
caravan appeared deter-
mined to reach the U.S.,