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For migrants, arduous US journey ends with sigh of relief on a plane
McAllen (United States) (AFP) - It will be the first time on a plane for most of the undocumented families that arrive daily at the McAllen, Texas airport, holding envelopes that read "Please help me, I don't speak English." The envelopes are not passports per se, but might as well be: Inside are the families' boarding passes and negative Covid tests -- everything they need to continue onward on their long journeys fleeing their home countries. After risking their lives to travel hundreds of miles (kilometers) by bus, car, trailer and on foot, trekking dangerous routes controlled by drug traff...
AFP
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Mexico and Guatemala in joint effort to slow migrant caravans
Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Mexico) (AFP) - The governments of Mexico and Guatemala have launched a joint military-police operation along their common border aimed at blocking caravans of migrants hoping to reach the United States. The Biden administration had sent envoys to the two countries on Monday to seek their help as it struggles to control a surge of migrants seeking to reach its southern border. "The criminal networks of human traffickers have sold them (the migrants) the illusion that they can reach the border with the United States without risk," said Francisco Garduno, head of Mexico's Natio...
AFP
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Mexico boosts border security to stop child migrants
Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexico will step up security along its southern border with Guatemala to stop child migrants crossing on their way to the United States, the authorities said Friday. The announcement comes after an increase in flows of undocumented migrants heading north following US President Joe Biden's immigration reforms. The operations on the southern border are aimed at protecting child migrants who are "exploited by criminal networks," the National Migration Institute (NMI) said. Patrols will use drones and night vision equipment for surveillance in areas where undocume...
AFP
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Guatemala's ‘La Llorona’ fuses horror and politics to tell a haunting tale of the civil war
Screen capture from scenes of the film “La Llorona” on YouTube. In Latin America, la llorona (the “weeping woman”) is a popular oral legend about a woman who drowned her children and then, repentant and cursed, searches for them at night through rivers, frightening those who see or hear her cries. La llorona has been represented in different cultural works, such as in Disney's “Coco” (2017), but also in Hollywood horror movies such as “The Curse of La Llorona” (2019) and the many different interpretations of the Mexican song “Llorona“. According to Foreign Policy, 10 films have alluded to the ...
Global Voices
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Mexico identifies four of 19 bodies found burned near US border
Ciudad Victoria (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexico has identified at least four of the 19 bodies found shot and burnt near the US border, prosecutors said Saturday. Two Guatemalans -- believed to be migrants -- and two Mexicans were identified by their DNA after authorities discovered the bodies on January 22, the prosecutor’s office in the northern state of Tamaulipas said in a statement. It said members of the Interior Ministry’s national search commission had been added to the investigation for "greater transparency", in collaboration with the foreign ministry and the Guatemalan embassy in Mexico. "I...
AFP
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US, Mexico, Guatemala bar migrant caravans, citing Covid
Guatemala City (AFP) - The United States, Mexico and Guatemala agreed Friday to bar migrant caravans from passing through their territories due to the Covid pandemic, days after one from Honduras was violently broken up in Guatemala. US Ambassador to Guatemala William Popp stressed that any migrants who cross the US border in an irregular manner will be returned home immediately, citing national health security. His comments came after a meeting with Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo and Mexican Ambassador to Guatemala Romeo Ruiz. "Any attempt to create massive flows of people will not b...
AFP
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Guatemalan security forces break up US-bound migrant caravan
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan security forces on Monday broke up a caravan of some 4,000 Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States on a journey of thousands of kilometers through Central America on foot, AFP reporters witnessed. Police advanced on the group in a coordinated move, striking batons against their shields to make an intimidating noise, prompting the migrants to scatter. The group was still on Guatemalan soil, and many would likely regroup to resume their quest for a better life further north. The caravan, which departed Honduras on Friday, has been held up sin...
AFP
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Guatemala police fire tear gas, disperse US-bound migrant caravan
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States on foot, with soldiers beating back a group trying to push through barricades, AFP journalists witnessed. Security forces surrounded the migrant caravan on a road in the southeastern Guatemalan town of Vado Hondo, near the border with Honduras. Amid the deafening explosions of gas and smoke cannisters, many migrants retreated, with some waiting nearby to make a new attempt later, while others fled into nearby mountains. Several dropped their spars...
AFP
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Guatemala police fire tear gas at US-bound migrant caravan: AFP
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of migrants headed for the United States on foot, and soldiers beat back a group that tried to push through barriers, AFP journalists witnessed. Security forces surrounded the migrant caravan on a road in the town of Vado Hondo, near the border with Honduras where they came from, and fired tear gas. Police say at least 6,000 people had arrived in the town, out of some 9,000 who left Honduras in recent days in the hopes of making it to the United States to start a new life there. The deafening explosion...
AFP
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US-bound migrant caravan in Guatemala swells to 9,000 people
Camotan (Guatemala) (AFP) - At least 9,000 Honduran migrants have entered Guatemala after a first group pushed past border police late Friday and others soon followed on the first step of a journey north they hope will take them to the United States, officials said Saturday. Seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, the migrants, most of them traveling on foot, planned to head first to Mexico and then on to the US, a journey of thousands of kilometers. A first group of men, women and children -- many wearing masks due to th...
AFP
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