A huge human tide made up of some 15,000 migrants left Tapachula, in the Mexican federal state of Chiapas, on Monday, and this Tuesday continued its course towards the border with the United States. There, in Los Angeles, a summit of the Americas began on Monday, whose main proposal is a great migration pact between Washington and the capitals of the southern continent.
Observers assure that it is the largest caravan seen so far on the continent, within the migratory crisis or great flight from the south to the north of America in search of prosperity, freedom or mere survival.
The displaced, most of them Central Americans, Venezuelans, and Colombians, are targeting a new office of the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico where they can regularize their situation in Mexico, because they do not get visas at the entity's representation in Chiapas. humanitarian.
Mexico received more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, triple the number of the previous year. And so far in 2022, requests already exceed 20% of those of 2021.
Mass marches like the one that began this Monday are showy but they constitute only a sample and a small portion of the total flow of migrants that from all corners of Latin America, and even Africa and India, make the daily pilgrimage to the promising land of first western power.
The large caravans to the US border are a relatively recent phenomenon. Those who join them seek the greater security and solidarity that a large number of participants usually offer. Strength based on unit and quantity. Before 2018, the marches were more modest and the objective was not so much to reach the borders of the northern neighbor as to make the drama of immigration known to the world.
Since Monday, and at least during the first hours of the march, the walkers of the caravan in progress passed the police controls without major problems. Some reports from agencies on the ground, such as that of Efe, indicated that the surveillance checkpoints made up of immigration agents and the National Guard were limited to observing the advance of the tide. Other reports, such as one from the AP, stated that some policemen stopped trucks with trailers so that those traveling in them would get out and walk, "apparently in the hope of tiring them out."
In recent times, the governments of Mexico and Guatemala have been acting with certain forcefulness to dissolve this type of marches before they take shape. It will be necessary to see if this one that coincides with the meeting of leaders in Los Angeles is allowed to continue ... and to what extent.
