Migrant caravan continues exodus

MAPASTEPEC, Mexico-Thousands of Central American migrants crossing Mexico toward the United States in a caravan have resumed their long trek, walking about 12 hours to their next destination.

The migrants, who have drawn near-daily Twitter tirades from US President Donald Trump, walked and hitched rides from the town of Huixtla, in southern Mexico, to Mapastepec, some 60 kilometers away.

Carrying their few belongings on their backs－many with babies pressed to their chests or holding their children by the hand－they left at dawn after taking a one-day break to rest, bathe and nurse aching and injured feet.

"I miss my country. I'm not doing this because I want to. No one wants to leave their home to go to a place they don't know. But sometimes necessity pushes us to do this, because of what's happening in our countries," said Delmer Martinez, a migrant from El Salvador.

Fleeing violent crimes and poverty at home, the migrants say they are determined to reach the US－despite Trump's vows to stop them, and his threats to cut aid to Central American countries, as well as to deploy the military and close the southern US border.

On Tuesday, Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Videgaray spoke by telephone with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about his country's efforts to attend to the migrants with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

There are now about 7,000 migrants in the caravan, the United Nations estimates－though Mexican authorities put the number much lower on Wednesday: 3,630.

The vast majority are from Honduras.

Show of solidarity

In a show of solidarity, Mexicans watching the caravan pass shouted out "Keep it up, brothers!" and gave them food and water.

"Mexico! Mexico!" the migrants shouted in reply, bathed in sweat under the hot sun of the southern state of Chiapas.

They have so far traveled about 100 kilometers from the Mexico-Guatemala border, where they crashed through a series of border gates on Friday.

Halted at the final gate by hundreds of riot police, most of the caravan entered Mexico by swimming or taking rafts across the river that forms the border.

Mexican federal police have periodically accompanied the caravan in trucks or flown overhead in helicopters, but without attempting to stop it.

According to the Mexican government, about 1,700 people who were traveling in the caravan have requested asylum in Mexico.

The migrants still have some 3,000 km left to walk to reach the US.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro labeled US Vice-President Mike Pence "a madman" after he accused Caracas of financing the caravan.

"What tremendous convening power I have in Central America, Mike Pence! If it wasn't for an extremist, an extremist madman saying it, ... one would have to laugh."

AFP/XINHUA/AP