After three grueling weeks walking along highways and hitching rides in pickups and flatbed trucks, thousands of Central American migrants traveling in a caravan through southern Mexico learned Friday that they would soon be leapfrogging ahead to the nation’s capital in buses.
As the caravan crossed into the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes announced that authorities there would be providing not only humanitarian assistance but also offering mass transportation for the migrants.
“It is very important that they be able to move soon from Veracruz toward another place,” Yunes said in a video message released in the evening. “For that reason, we also offered them transportation so that, if possible, tomorrow … they may be able to go to Mexico City or to the place they wish.”
During an evening assembly, caravan organizers told the migrants that they would be leaving around 5 a.m. for the capital in dozens of buses, apparently enough to accommodate the several thousand people in the group.
“We are all going!” one the coordinators told the group.
A child, part of the Central American caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, looks at the camera, in Donaji, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. The migrants had already made a grueling 40-mile (65-kilometer) trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, on Thursday, after they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. But hitching rides allowed them to get to Donaji early, and some headed on to a town even further north, Sayula. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Organizers said women and children would be given priority, and the buses would depart in groups of 10 for a trip expected to take 10 to 12 hours.
The announcement came after the migrants’ request for buses to Mexico City were ignored by the Mexican government days earlier when they were in Juchitan, Oaxaca state.
Earlier in the day, a third caravan of migrants — this time from El Salvador — waded over the Suchiate River into Mexico on Friday, bringing another 1,000 to 1,500 people who want to reach the U.S. border.
The third caravan tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, but Mexican authorities told those traveling in it they would have to show passports and visas and enter in groups of 50 for processing.
