Venezuelans on Mexico’s southern border, where they represent more than a quarter of the irregular migration detected this year, ask the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, for help to resolve the political crisis in Venezuela, which, according to them, would stop migrant caravans.
The Mexican Government detected 266,846 irregular migrants from Venezuela from January to August, which implies 28.85% of the total of 925,085 of all nationalities this 2024 and an increase of 142.76% compared to the 109,920 Venezuelans reported in the first eight months of 2023. according to the Migration Policy Unit.
Venezuelans stranded in Tapachula, on the border of Mexico with Central America, told EFE that the phenomenon is due to the crisis after the proclaimed re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, which is why they ask Trump to help alleviate the conflict if he wants to stop it. migration to the United States.
“If they want to stop migration, easy, help get Maduro out of there and this will end because we are not migrating and going through horrible things because we want to, we do it out of necessity because the political condition and economic,” said Michell, a migrant from Venezuela.
Caravans of controversy
The migrant caravans have caused renewed controversy since November, when President Claudia Sheinbaum assured in a telephone conversation with Trump that these groups “no longer reach” the border with the United States, while he has promised 25% tariffs on Mexican products if they do not. stops “the invasion” of migrants and drugs.
But Venezuelan Julio Solano asks the president to reinforce attention to migrants who travel in caravans to provide them with humanitarian aid during their passage through Mexico.
“We call on the president of Mexico to humanely support the migrants who leave from one central point to another,” he said.
América Pérez, coordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Service (SJR) in Tapachula, warned that despite the rhetoric, people continue arriving, advancing and crossing borders to reach the United States.
For now, he noted, there are migrants who prefer to carry out their process through the regular route with “CBP One”, an application of the United States Customs and Border Protection Office that allows them to manage an appointment from the south of Mexico.
“The flow continues, I think the dynamics have changed the time that people stay, they stay a short time in Tapachula and decide to advance further along the journey, that is why groups of 10 or 15 people leave to advance,” he explained to EFE.
Likewise, Luis Rey García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignification (CDH), stated that migrants are now trying to walk from Tapachula to Juchitán, in the neighboring state of Oaxaca.
The activist, who usually accompanies the caravans, estimated that some 10,000 migrants have left in these contingents since the beginning of the Sheinbaum Administration, on October 1.
For example, the migrant caravan that left Tapachula last week tried to reach the municipality of Pijijiapan at a slow pace amid tensions due to the presence of agents from the National Migration Institute (INM) who are trying to dismantle the group to take them to Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Logwood.
With information from EFE
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