Thousands of undocumented migrants left the city of Tapachula, in southern Mexico, on Monday with the intention of reaching the United States, where the Summit of the Americas began with the issue of migration on its agenda, confirmed the AFP.
An AFP photographer and videographer noted that the caravan is made up of thousands of people, with no official figures available.
“I consider that we are walking more than 15,000 human beings,” Luis García Villagrán, coordinator of the NGO Center for Human Dignification that accompanies the migrants, told AFP.
“We tell the leaders of the countries that meet today at the Summit of the Americas that migrant women and children, migrant families, are not currency of exchange for ideological and political interests,” he added. “We walk for our freedom, because we have the right to migrate,” she said.
At the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden hopes to reach a regional agreement on the issue of migration.
However, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose country is one of the main trading partners of the United States, announced on Monday that was not going to attend the summit because Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were not invited.
Under persistent rain, the undocumented immigrants began their walk towards the United States, a path of more than 3,000 km, carrying small flags from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras.
“Migrants are not criminals, we are international workers,” said a banner that stood out among the caravan of undocumented migrants.
“Freedom! Freedom!” and “We want visas,” the walkers chanted as they passed through a police checkpoint.
“There is no victory without sacrifice”
Omar Herrera, a migrant from Venezuela, said that he left his job at a university in that country because the salary “is not enough” and now he is willing to do exhausting days of walking in search of a better future.
“Without sacrifice there is no victory,” he added.
The migrant caravans that traveled through Mexico in 2018 and 2019 caused strong tensions with the United States, then governed by Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Since then, Mexico has reinforced its controls on the southern border and in 2021, 307,679 undocumented migrants were detained.
The number of people trying to reach the United States from Mexico increased with the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the White House in January 2021.