After Trump's Threats, Mexico Blocks Refugee Caravan Fleeing Violence

Amid increasing pressure from the U.S. administration of Donald Trump, the Mexican government Monday evening made efforts to disperse the refugee caravan consisting of over 1,300 migrants from Central America.

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The halted caravan is currently in the town of Matias Romero Avendano in the southern state of Oaxaca, the Washington Post reported. Some people from the group moved to the neighboring state of Veracruz, the caravan organizers told the Washington Post but it wasn't clear if the people were dispersed. 

The move comes after Trump Sunday threatened to cut off immigration programs like DACA, as he targeted the refugee caravan with nearly 1,350 migrants who were en route to Mexico and the United States on an arduous journey from the city of Tapachula in the state of Chiapas on the Mexico-Guatemala border, to demand an end to the political corruption in their cities, and dignity and the right to asylum from Mexico and the United States.   

"Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. "Caravans” coming," Trump tweeted Sunday. "Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!"  

The caravan was organized by "Pueblos Sin Fronteras" or "People Without Borders," a refugee and migrant rights organization.  

The "Viacrucis Migrante 2018" (Migrant's Way of the Cross) under the banner, "Migrantes en la Lucha" (Migrants in the struggle), which primarily includes people from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, began their trip on Palm Sunday to escape "dangers such as extortion, robbery, murder, sexual assault, torture and deportation."

Pueblos Sin Fronteras said in a statement that "the unprecedented number of people who have joined the current refugee caravan and the high percentage of people fleeing Honduras in the group are the result of multiple political crises in the region provoked in large part by the policies of the U.S. government." 

"The U.S. support for the Honduran military coup of 2009 and the electoral coup of November 2017 have intensified military and political repression, insecurity, and physical and economic violence."

Mexico’s Interior Ministry said in a Monday statement that "under no circumstances does the government of Mexico promote irregular migration," further adding that the caravan has been taking place since 2010.

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"The U.S. President opportunistically invoked the refugee caravans as a pretext for threatening immigrants already in the country," referring to the DACA recipients. "Trump is trying to turn the Central American refugees and other immigrant communities against each other, and use them as a bargaining chip with Mexico," Pueblo Sin Fronteras said in a statement. 

The group further pointing out that "The systematic violence encountered throughout the migrant route in Mexico is exacerbated by anti-immigrant enforcement policies backed by the U.S. government, fueled by the Merida Initiative, and paid by the people of the U.S. and Mexico." 

The contingent undertaking the daunting journey to the southern frontiers of Mexico to reach the U.S. comprises of children, newborns with their mothers, men, and women, where the families, mostly mothers with their children have to arrange for water, food, and shelter for the vulnerable section of the caravan.

The organization also pointed out that since the start of the caravan, the "right-wing white supremacists have responded by threatening and calling for violence against its participants and supporters." 

"In the face of this bullying and these threats of mass violence, we continue to stand in solidarity with displaced people, " the group added in a statement.  

"Both the United States and Mexico have signed international agreements that uphold the rights of refugees, including the right of non-refoulement. Their asylum processes are punitive and unjust. Mexico's 2017 Internal Security Law criminalizes human rights defenders and further endangers refugees and asylum seekers fleeing for their lives," the migrant rights organization said.