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News > Latin America

Chomsky: Migrant Caravan 'Fleeing Horrors' US Created

  • The migrants have faced injuries, illness, and at least one death in their journey North.

    The migrants have faced injuries, illness, and at least one death in their journey North. | Photo: Reuters

Published 3 November 2018
Opinion

The exodus will not reach Mexico City today after the governor of Veracruz rescinded his free transportation offer, but they continue walking north.

Noam Chomsky, the renowned intellectual and political activist, says the United States is responsible for the conditions that have led to the mass exodus from Central American countries

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Migrant Caravan: Trump Suggests Possible Use of Lethal Force

“People are fleeing from the misery and horrors for which we are responsible... people fleeing from severe oppression, violence, terror, extreme poverty from three countries: Honduras—mainly Honduras, secondarily Guatemala, thirdly El Salvador—not Nicaragua, incidentally—three countries that have been under harsh U.S. domination” Chomsky said Friday during an interview with Democracy Now.

United States President Donald Trump warned Thursday that the troops deployed to the border to stop the Central American Exodus, which he calls an "invasion," will regard stones possibly thrown by migrants as firearms, paving the way for the use of lethal force by U.S. soldiers.

“All of this rings very familiar bells. It’s been a long-standing element of the U.S. propaganda system, mostly on the far right but not only, which goes way back and which is a kind of pathological feature of the dominant political culture that should be understood, analyzed, and dismantled,” Chomsky said of Trump's rhetoric which has dehumanized the men, women, and children walking to the U.S. southern border.

The activist also referred to the deployment of troops, calling it a charade. "Poor, miserable people, families, mothers, children, fleeing from terror and repression, for which we are responsible, and in reaction, they’re sending thousands of troops to the border... They’re frightening much of the country into believing that we’re just on the verge of an invasion by, you know, Middle Eastern terrorists funded by George Soros, so on and so forth."

This Saturday, the migrant exodus of between 5,000 and 7,000 people continues trekking north through Mexico despite having recently lost over 100 buses that would have taken them to Mexico City.

On Friday, Miguel Angel Yunes, the governor of the state of Veracruz promised to provide free buses to Mexico City. However, he rescinded the offer hours later citing a water shortage in the capital. "The shortage will affect more than seven million people," Yunes said but migrants believe it is only an "excuse."

"I would like to ask the migrants, while the problems get solved and we wait for an in-depth solution to this issue, that they accept an invitation to go to a city of Veracruz further to the south, to a bigger city where they will have adequate installations to provide them with safety."

Members of the migrant exodus responded in an open letter saying the decision is unacceptable.

"The people in the caravan have walked for weeks under the rain and sun from Central America, where they left their houses and families; they were forced to leave their countries due to the violence, death, and hunger," the letter reads.

"At the moment, the Exodus has dozens of sick children, pregnant women and several members with illnesses and injuries,” they said. “The arrival in Mexico City is crucial to meet all these needs."

The buses would have carried them hundreds of miles from Sayula de Aleman to Mexico City. Now they are walking to Ciudad Isla, Veracruz, 46 miles away.

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