The 4,000-person migrant caravan from Honduras has reached the border between Mexico and Guatemala, and clashes have already ensued.
Just after noon local time Friday, the caravan reached the border where they were met with several hundred Mexican and Guatemalan police in riot gear. The migrants began to climb over the gates at the border bridge, and eventually tore the gates down, according to a New York Post report Friday.
See the video below:
The caravan waves flags of Honduras and chanted messages such as “One way or another, we will pass” and “We are not smugglers, we are immigrants.”
Honduran migrants broke down the gates at the Guatemalan border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. https://t.co/Vpzq5JzyeE pic.twitter.com/nC0tC5G21v
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 19, 2018
The Mexican ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, previously said that some 100 migrants would be permitted entry in the country each day on asylum visas and further refugee requests would be reviewed by authorities.
Two planes filled with Mexico federal police arrived in the border town of Tapachula on Wednesday to set up a block at the border.
MIGRANT CARAVAN: Two federal police-filled planes w/anti-riot gear landed near the Mexico/Guatemala border this morn (vid source: Policia Federal de Mexico). pic.twitter.com/UyneeXlPnu
— KarlaZabs (@karlazabs) October 17, 2018
Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Luis Videgaray traveled to New York this week to meet personally with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and plea for help in processing migrants in the caravan who may qualify for refugee status.
Previously, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement, “Any person wishing to enter national territory must do so by complying with the requirements established in the Migration Law and at the authorized entry points, and may then move freely in Mexico until the expiration of the visa.”
The Latest: Migrants in a caravan traveling through Central America break down the gates at a border crossing and are streaming toward a bridge to Mexico.https://t.co/A66jH6DPlR
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 19, 2018
“Current legislation does not permit entry into Mexico if requirements to travel to a neighboring country have not been met,” the statement added.
Additionally, Mexico’s Interior and Foreign Relations ministries released a joint statement warning that migrants without immigration documentation would be arrested and “returned to their country of origin.”
