Migrant rights advocates and the Spanish-language media have reported that another migrant caravan, with an estimated 15,000 people, is preparing to leave Honduras on January 15. “They say they are even bigger and stronger than the last caravan,” the San Diego Union-Tribune noted, quoting Irma Garrido, a member of the migrant advocacy group Reactiva Tijuana Foundation.
Garrido said the new caravan will probably be joined by more people in El Salvador and Guatemala, and noted that, unlike previous caravans, these migrants don’t plan to travel directly to Tijuana on the Mexico-U.S. border, which has been overwhelmed by the large number.
“[The new migrant caravan] will stay in the south of Mexico in Chiapas and Oaxaca. Their aim is to request work there,” Garrido said.
However, El Diario de Chiapas, a newspaper for the southern state of Mexico, reported that even though Tijuana would not be the newest caravan’s initial destination, some of the participants plan to eventually make their way north to the city to try to enter the United States.
The Union-Tribune cited a report from El Diario de Chiapas that like the last caravan, news about the migrant caravans’ plans to leave Honduras, their numbers, and which routes they plan to take is spreading mostly by social media.
The report noted that there were unfavorable reactions in Chiapas to news of a second caravan coming to their area and quoted a post from Anna Perez from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, on Facebook:
“Well, now the government does something. That work is for Mexicans that need it,” said Perez. “Opportunistic people who just want to take advantage of the Mexicans.”
Back in October, The New American posted an article headlined, “Who’s Funding the Caravan and Who Could be Hiding Among the Hondurans?” The article cited a report published by the New York Post that identified one Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran legislator and vocal supporter of Hugo Chavez, as the instigator of the apparently sudden exodus from the Central American country. When Fuentes first became aware of several small groups dispersed throughout Honduras that were organizing among themselves to make the trek north, he decided to help fund their effort.
It will be interesting to see if Fuentes is also involved in financing this new migrant caravan.
Photo: PytyCzech/iStock/Getty Images Plus
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