Walking in their Shoes

People & Power follows two migrant caravans as they head through Mexico to the US border.

For well over a year, large groups of Central American migrants, travelling together for safety in "caravans", have been fleeing from persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Covering thousands of kilometres through Mexico, they've been heading to the US border in the hopes of getting across and gaining asylum - despite the many dangers and privations en route and warnings by US officials that anyone found entering the country illegally would face arrest, prosecution and deportation.

The largest traveling group, with over 7,000 people, got under way in Octobewr 2018, attracting enormous media attention and a furious response from American President Donald Trup, who labelled the caravan an invasion, dispatched troops to the border, reaffirmed his election pledge to build a "wall" on the border to keep migrants out, then announced (after Congress declined to pay for it despite a 35 day government shutdown), that he would declare a national emergency to get the funds.

This provoked a bitter constitutional confrontation with his opponents, which is still playing out and may yet end up in the US Supreme Court.

In the meantime, the October caravans arrived at Mexican border towns such as Tijuana, adding to the thousands of migrants waiting in often squalid, dangerous conditions in hopes of getting to the US.

They have since been joined by others who, notwithstanding the undimmed hostility of the Trump administration and the growing impatience of Mexico, have continued to follow in their footsteps. The crisis, if that is indeed the best way to describe the attempt by many thousands of desperate people to gain sanctuary, continues.

So who are these people and what are they escaping from? As some of the largest groups passed through Mexico at the end of 2018, reporter Eric Campbell travelled with them to find out.

He heard heart-breaking tales of teenagers running for their lives from gang violence, a mother hoping to get medical treatment for her daughter, young families escaping poverty and deprivation.

Even then, few of them were oblivious to the fierce rhetoric coming from the White House or the dangers of being trapped at the border or even being deported, but most seemed to be clinging onto the hope that somehow they'd find a way to a better life in the US.

Source: Al Jazeera

Honduras, a desperate situation

Honduras a country with 112,000 km2 and 9.100,000 inhabitants is suffering a very difficult moment. Thousands of people are escaping from a critical political, social and security environment.

Donald Trump threats

US President Donald Trump's threats against a caravan of thousands of Honduras migants  headed to the United States will not deter people from fleeing the Central American country, activists say, adding they would welcome a cut in US military and security aid to Honduran security forces.

"With regard to the threats of the United States government, I don't even think people listen to that," human rights activist Yessica Trinidad told Al Jazeera over the phone.
"People leaving have no certainty as to whether or not they will arrive. It is like leaping into an abyss, but for them, it is better than living here," said Trinidad, coordinator of the Honduran Network of Women Human Rights Defenders.

The caravan set out Saturday from northwestern Honduras. More than 2,000 people reached Guatemala Monday after a standoff with Guatemalan police at the border. The caravan, now in waves at different points on the route, continues to grow, with some estimates putting it at more than 5,000.

Honduran migrants cross the Lempa river, on the border between Honduras and Guatemala, to cross into Guatemala to join a caravan trying to reach the US [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

On Thursday, Trump ramped up his threats against the caravan, tweeting that "in addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in strongest terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

Earlier in the week, he had threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if the caravan wasn't stopped before it reached the US border.

The warnings came less than a week after the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met in Washington for the second Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America. As part of its Strategy for Central America, the US has committed about $2.6bn in aid to Central America for 2015 through 2018.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), US aid to Honduras totalled more than $181m last year. The category of security, the justice sector, and violence prevention received more funding than any other, without including funding for borders and drug control. Most of the aid is channelled through the Department of State and US Agency for International Development, but there was also $47m via the Department of Defense last year, according to WOLA. 

Adam Isacson, director of WOLA's defence oversight programme, said the number earmarked for this year is likely close to that of 2017. The organisation has not yet been able to obtain country breakdowns of regional security funding but does not expect the final tally will be a big shift from last year.

Isacson said Trump's comments show he does not understand how aid works.

"Trump's tweets betray that our president actually thinks that US aid is a big cash transfer to those countries, like we're just giving them money. And I think a lot of people think that," he told Al Jazeera over the phone. 

"The president's tweets seem to [suggest] that you're just turning off a cash spigot and there's this river of cash flowing to Honduras," Isacson said.
"But of course not a dime goes to Honduras because of the fear it will be stolen. It's all in kind. It's all training or technical services or contractors or equipment for specific things," he said.
Reference: Aljazeera.com

Mexican hospitality: the Southern brothers

A migrant boy, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, walks through a makeshift camp in Mexico City [Hannah McKay/Reuters]

Mexico City - Jairo Mauricio Ramirez did not have to say many goodbyes in Honduras. A 16-year-old orphan, he joined thousands of US-bound migrants and refugees last month when they came through Ocotepeque, his hometown.

Ramirez hopes to make it to the United States to find work and continue his schooling beyond the Grade 7 level he was able to complete. He would like to be a doctor or an engineer.

"I always liked studying, but I could not afford to continue," Ramirez told Al Jazeera.

When Ramirez was eight years old, his father died in an accident. When he was 12, his mother died of a heart attack. He has no siblings.

Ramirez lived with an uncle, but his uncle left Honduras a few months ago to migrate to the US. Ramirez has not heard from him since. He had a job at a local hardware store for a while, but was let go.

"There is no work these days," he said.

When Al Jazeera spoke with Ramirez, he was waiting in line for a donated blanket to stay warm during the cold Mexico City nights. He and several thousand other Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty were staying in a stadium that had been transformed into a makeshift refugee camp.

Jairo Mauricio Ramirez, a 16-year-old Honduran orphan, waits in line for a blanket at the Mexico City stadium migrant and refugee camp [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

Managed by the Mexico City government and the city human rights commission, the camp was abuzz with activity all week, as groups large and small trickled into the capital city.

Migrants and refugees rested in the stadium bleachers, large tents in the field, and grassy areas outside the stadium. Others received medical attention, watched their kids being entertained by clowns, or waited in line for food, clothing and blankets. Little cheering circles formed around impromptu dance and song performances here and there on the sports complex grounds.

An estimated 5,000 Central Americans stayed at the stadium this week, and thousands more are slowly making their way up through southern Mexicoin subsequent caravans from Honduras and El Salvador. Preparations for more caravans are in the works. Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and other Latin Americans have also joined the various waves of the ongoing exodus.

Ramirez made it through the first 1,650km through Guatemala and up to Mexico City. Like most of the thousands of migrants and refugees, he wants to make it through the next 2,700km to theUS border.

At an assembly on Thursday evening, the migrants and refugees voted to choose a route to the Tijuana border crossing. It is more than 1,000km further away than the closest points of entry to the US, but it is a safer route. It avoids parts of northeastern Mexico with high rates of homicides and forced disappearances, including that of migrants and refugees.

Central American migrants taking part in a caravan towards the US, watch a film as they rest during a stop in the journey at a shelter, set up at the Sports City in Mexico City [Alfredo Estrella/AFP]

The assembly chose to depart at 5am local time (11:00 GMT) on Friday, but plans changed overnight and the majority of migrants and refugees at the stadium chose to stay in the hopes of obtaining bus transport to the border.

Many people chose not to wait, however, and hundreds of people set out towards Queretaro on Friday morning, along the route to Tijuana. The remaining thousands plan to leave before dawn on Saturday, migrant and refugee caravan spokespeople said at a press conference on Friday.

Sandra Cuffe

From. Aljazeera.com