Mexico deportes 244 Hondurans from the caravan after clash with the National Guard

Mexico has repatriated by land and air more than 200 migrants from the first caravan of 2020 who were arrested on Monday after clashes with National Guard troops armored with the southern border with Guatemala, while nearly 1,000 requested help to return to his country, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported on Tuesday, who defended Mexican immigration policy.

"Mexico has one of the most generous positions in the world" in immigration matters, said Ebrard in a press conference, who explained that they already deported 244 people, 110 by plane and 144 more by land, bound for Honduras .

After the confrontation this Monday between a group of people who are members of the convoy and elements of the National Guard, which also left hundreds stranded in "no man's land" on the natural geographical boundary, the Suchiate River, the foreign minister stressed that "all they were respectful "with migrants, statements that differ from some eyewitnesses.

"If they beat several of our friends who came there, some came scraped, there they will see them, they are very scratched, as they were beaten with sticks that were walking, there were ladies who fell, all that did not take into account", denounced a migrant who identified himself as Johnny.

Members of the first caravan of migrants of 2020 try to cross into Mexican territory on Monday. Photo: Reuters

“The National Guard behaved according to the ordinances that have been given to it, we are not wounded by fortune, we do not have a situation to regret and good despite the stones that were received and a very tense situation, we can say yes on Yesterday someone had the intention to provoke, he did not fulfill his mission, ”said Ebrard.

He considered that there is no "need" for this type of clash to be generated on the border with Guatemala because Mexico is a country of asylum .

"We are a country of asylum, of refuge, what need do you have when you are being offered refuge, asylum ... of coming to do that, violence, and in a country that even offers employment or in your country of origin," he asked. Foreign Minister, referring to the 4,000 jobs and assistance offered last week by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to migrants.

For its part, the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, also present at the press conference, made it clear that the federal government favors an orderly, safe and regulated migration .

After the confrontation at the border, one of the groups that managed to cross decided to return to Guatemala, while a third remained on the bank of the river on the Mexican side in what some members of the caravan already define as "no man's land" and at the moment they don't know what to do.

"We are in no man's land," said Alan Mejía, who cradled his two-year-old son in his arms, dressed only in a diaper, while his wife, Ingrid Vanesa Portillo, and her other son, 12, looked at the shore . Mejía had joined other previous caravans, but never passed from the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

Migrants stranded on the border between Mexico and Guatemala this marters. Photo: Reuters

"They are planning how to evict us and here we have neither water nor food," Portillo lamented desperately. "There is no hope of moving forward."

In fact, Telemundo News correspondent Raúl Torres found that there was no evidence of humanitarian aid even on the way.

"We never thought they would receive us like this, they treated us like dogs," complained Melisa Avila, who was traveling from the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, with her 12-year-old son, and was resigning herself to the prospect of spending the night outdoors.

During the weekend, some thousand people entered the bridge legally thanks to the humanitarian visas offered by the Mexican government as the only way to cross into their territory where they have been offered assistance and jobs.

However, Central Americans have denounced that these jobs are part of the official programs of the Mexican Government Young People Building the Future and Sowing Life, which are also in their home countries, just where they are fleeing violence and poverty.

The National Immigration Institute issued a statement stating that any migrant who entered the country illegally would be arrested, held in a detention center and deported if he did not legalize his situation. Anyone who managed to cross the border could expect a succession of controls on the highway.

As feared, the children suffered in the chaos of the day . On the Mexican shore, an unconscious 14-year-old girl was evacuated to give her medical attention.

Later, along the highway, a mother cried after realizing that she had separated from her youngest daughter when migrants tried to flee from the authorities. Other people who had helped her carrying her five-year-old daughter ran in another direction when people dispersed, and had failed to locate them.

Back in the river, Avila, who had befriended the woman in a shelter of Tecun Uman, walked along the shore showing everyone a picture of the girl.

“Didn't you see this little girl? Pans blue, beige shirt and pink shoes, ”he asked other migrants.

The Guatemalan government gave new data, indicating that 4,000 migrants had entered the country through the two main border crossings and that during the weekend almost 1,700 had entered Mexico by two steps. Another 400 were deported from Guatemala.

The Immigration Institute said Monday night in a statement that some 500 migrants had entered the country irregularly, and announced the "rescue" of 402 , using its usual term for immigrant detentions. Localized migrants would be transferred to detention centers and offered medical attention.

Five members of the National Guard were injured, the agency said without offering further details.

When the stones began to fly in the river on Monday, Elena Vasquez, who feared for the safety of her two frightened children, ran back to the Guatemalan side, where she spent the night. Exhausted after a week of travel, the 28-year-old woman from Olancho, Honduras, promised to persist and hoped that the Mexican authorities would change their minds.

"I'm going to wait as long as it takes, God will open the doors for us," said Vasquez.

Meanwhile, a new group of at least 200 migrants who left El Salvador joined the members of the first caravan of 2020 waiting in Tecún Umán, on the border of Guatemala with Mexico to cross and continue to the United States. The members of this new convoy say they left El Salvador fleeing violence and lack of economic opportunities.

The number of adult foreigners presented to Mexican immigration authorities increased 98% in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year, said the Migration Policy, Registration and Identity of Persons Unit of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob) .

This means that in 2019 there were 39,192 adult women until November, while in 2018 there were 19,796, he detailed in the 2019 Summary of Migration Statistics, which adds that almost one in three deportees are women.

Both countries agreed in June 2019 that the United States would withdraw its threat of imposing tariffs on Mexican products in exchange for the Mexican Government deploying the National Guard on the border with Guatemala to curb the migration flow.

In October 2018, thousands of migrants entered Mexico to flee poverty and violence in order to reach US territory, which caused tensions between the Mexican Government and the United States.

Edited by Olga Luna with information from Raúl Torres and Associated Press

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