2023-09-28 21:35:00
Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico (CNN) — A couple of dozen people pile into a van with space for 13 passengers. They have just crossed a river on a makeshift raft and hope to travel about 30 kilometers in Mexico to reach their next stop. But a few minutes later, the van stops and everyone has to get out.
The passengers – children and their parents, older couples and single adults – paid to get from Ciudad Hidalgo, on the Mexico-Guatemala border, to Tapachula, the nearest city.
However, they entered Mexico without permission or documents, so the van driver tells them to sneak around and avoid a checkpoint, and that he or another vehicle will pick them up on the other side.
The families grab their belongings and head down a paved road as we join them, the grasslands almost completely hiding them from the view of the road and Mexican officials.
It is no secret that this happens, in the same way that everyone knows about the rafts that take people across the Suchiate River and the international border.
From time to time, Mexican officials shout through the long grass at walkers and tell them to get back to the main road.
Nobody pays attention to them. The migrants continue walking, sometimes signaling to each other to duck and avoid detection.
We did not see any officials trying to chase them as they walked along the unofficial migrant route, a few meters from National Route 200 that runs from the border to the north.
This static game of cat and mouse is repeated several times as you pass various checkpoints along the route. Each stop involves a 20- or 30-minute walk, plus nerves about whether the promised transportation will be on the other side.
The migrants CNN spoke to said this was just another obstacle on their long journey, another series of difficulties that will likely lead to what is usually an hour-long journey lasting all day.
They also anticipated that in Tapachula they planned to request asylum or permission to legally transit through Mexico with the hope of reaching the United States.
Two families from Venezuela said it would be their first contact with authorities since fleeing their country. They say they traveled through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.
“It’s like dealing with the mafia,” said Yeimiler Rodríguez, who told CNN that his family has paid about $1,000 per person so far on their 18-day odyssey.
At sunset, they arrive in Tapachula, where they will spend the night. They may be in the city for several days, but none of them expect to stay forever.
Their eyes are on the United States, “the country of opportunity,” they say.
A woman tears up as she sits in the van after successfully passing a checkpoint. A fellow traveler tells her to take heart from her. “Don’t you want the American dream?” she tells him. “Hold on to that.”
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