• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Latin America

First Caravan In Mexico's Juchitan, US Army at Southern Border

  • Migrants, part of a caravan traveling to the U.S., form a human chain to help fellow migrants cross the Suchiate river, a natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico October 29, 2018.

    Migrants, part of a caravan traveling to the U.S., form a human chain to help fellow migrants cross the Suchiate river, a natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico October 29, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 30 October 2018
Opinion

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) files a complaint against military police after helicopters flew low to prevent migrants' passage.

As of Tuesday morning, the first of the three migrant caravans or Central American Exodus as participants call themselves is on its way to Juchitan, Oaxaca in southern Mexico to eventually seek asylum in the United States.

RELATED: 

US: Mattis Authorizes Border Deployment Order Ahead of Midterms

While sources tell teleSUR that the people of Oaxaca have been very “kind and supportive” of the approximately 4-7,000 men, women, and children traveling mainly by foot along the state’s coastal highway, the same can’t be said of the U.S. administration.

Around 5,200 U.S. troops are actively being sent to the south to “enhance CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) support by providing robust military capabilities” at the border with Mexico, said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, the head of U.S. Northern Command on Monday afternoon. Over 800 troops arrived on Monday in Texas and the remainder will arrive by end of this week.  

It was also announced on Tuesday morning that U.S. President Donald Trump will repeal by decree citizenship birthrights, taking away a person’s ability to be a citizen if they are born in the United States to foreign-born parents. Constitutional lawyers say this will require Congressional approval.

These measures by Trump come in the run-up to the Nov. 6 mid-term elections in a White House attempt to maintain control of Congress.  

TeleSUR in Mexico reports that Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) initiated an official complaint to investigate the actions of Mexico’s Federal Police on Monday when police helicopters deliberately flew low over the Suchiate River at the Mexico-Guatemala border temporarily preventing caravaners from crossing the 200 meter-wide river.

The operation caused strong winds and waves that put the asylum seekers “at risk, especially girls, children and women” as they tried to enter Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, in Mexico, the CNDH statement read.

As of Monday the Mexico National Institute of Migration (INM) received 1,743 applications for refugee status, while 196 people withdrew from it and requested assisted return.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.