Migrants: Mexico is putting pressure to avoid explosion

The crisis triggered by the massive arrival of Haitians in the United States takes on the appearance of a time bomb that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on Wednesday September 22 to defuse by moving from rhetoric to action.

Read alsoMexico wants a regional agreement with the United States to manage the flow of migrants

His appeal reflects the seriousness of a problem that affects the entire region.

Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, have been piling up for several weeks in the Mexican cities of Tapachula (southern border with Guatemala) and Ciudad Acuña (north, on the Texas border).

"

We must act

" says the Mexican president

Fleeing poverty and chaos, they seek refuge in the United States, many of them after crossing a dozen countries like Panama and Colombia, where some 19,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, are stranded at the border.

Read also Nearly 19,000 migrants stranded near the border between Colombia and Panama

"

Enough talk, we must act,

" hammered Lopez Obrador during his daily morning press conference. The United States “

has pledged to invest four billion, two billion for Central America and two billion for Mexico. Nothing happened, nothing,

”added the Mexican president of the left.

He has repeatedly offered to tackle the roots of the phenomenon with social investments.

His proposal initially concerned Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but the arrival of Haitians further complicated the situation.

López Obrador qualified his remarks by indicating that he saw a "

favorable atmosphere

" in the White House, President Joe Biden being "

involved

" in a desire to resolve the problem.

“

In other words, there are excellent conditions for signing a good agreement for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean and in particular of the countries of Central America.

So we will wait and I believe that there will be results,

”continued the Mexican president.

Some want to reunite with their families

Haitian migrants arrive mainly from Brazil and Chile, where they took refuge after the 2010 earthquake that left some 200,000 dead in their country.

Although they made their living in host countries, some say they left because of unemployment or difficulties renewing their work permits in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read also Haiti: nearly a million people are at risk of going hungry this winter near the site of the earthquake

Others are simply looking to reunite with their families in the United States.

"

We are desperate because a lot of people dream of going there and now they are deporting everyone the same way,

" said Maximil Marcadieu, 28, who left Chile on July 21 and arrived. a week ago in Ciudad Acuña.

Hundreds of migrants were deported by plane this week to Port-au-Prince, where a life of precariousness, violence and political chaos awaits them after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on July 7.

Hence the concern among the migrants who have been camping for a week in this city on the banks of the Rio Grande, some under a border bridge and others in parks.

“

I heard that immigration officials were coming here and that's why I couldn't sleep.

If they find me, I don't know where I'll go,

”said migrant Marie Chickel, 45, from Haiti.

Marie and her ten-year-old twins left Chile and, after crossing South and Central America, arrived in Mexico.

Stranded in Colombia

Thousands of their compatriots follow suit.

In the small Colombian port of Necoclí (north-west), some 19,000 people, mostly Haitians, wait to board a boat that will take them to the border with Panama to continue their journey through the inhospitable jungle of Darién, the Colombian People's Defender's office reported on Wednesday.

Read also Nearly two million Venezuelan migrants regularized in Colombia

Travelers must cross the Gulf of Urabá, a 60-kilometer stretch of sea.

They also face the threat of Clan del Golfo, the largest armed drug trafficking organization in the region.

Faced with the dimensions of this humanitarian crisis, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, have proposed a regional agreement, the contours of which they have not yet specified, but which could involve more obstacles for migrants.

Mexico has assigned 28,395 soldiers to guard the borders, according to the government, which said Wednesday that 147,033 irregular migrants had been intercepted so far in 2021. MM. Blinken, Ebrard and Central American foreign ministers are due to meet on Thursday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.