By Dolores Guerra
It was October 2018 when images of the border bridge between Guatemala and Mexico completely taken over by a crowd of migrants were broadcast around the world. What had previously been an individual journey made on the sly, mainly by ferry across the Suchiate River, was now publicly assumed to be a large Central American exodus.
Faced with the gateway to Mexican territory, not even the threats of the then US president, Donald Trump, to withdraw financial aid destined for the countries of the so called Northern Triangle of Central America were able to stand in his way.
There, a new dynamic emerged in the regional migratory flow: the great migrant caravans.
Migrant Way of the Cross: the origin of the caravans
Since 2010, a Central American migrant march has been taking place in Mexico during Holy Week in an attempt to raise awareness of the migratory situation in the region. Under the slogan “Via Crucis: we are all Americans by birth”, the 2018 edition received international repercussions.
The constant insults of the then president of the United States, Donald Trump, on discovering the existence of the April caravan, contrary to embarrassing migrants, In the end, it only showed those who had their suitcases packed that there were other people in the same situation as them, strengthening the call. Many were those who wanted to migrate, but didn't have the resources to find a middleman.
According to the civil organization Pueblos Sin Fronteras (PSF), the aim of the Via Crucis caravan was to escort the migrants so that they would arrive safe and sound in Mexico City, where they would be advised by volunteer lawyers on an individual basis. In this way, the migrants would be more aware of what their real alternatives were and could make a better decision about whether to follow the road to the United States or formally apply for asylum or legal migration in Mexico. As early as Oaxaca, in southeastern Mexico, the migration authorities distributed temporary transit permits with which the migrants would have twenty days to leave the country or thirty days to begin the legalization process.
Since that Via Crucis, small groups have been walking from the bus station in San Pedro Sula (Honduras), but still without the spotlight. Aware of the situation and concerned about the risks involved in the journey, activist Bartolo Fuentes launched a call on his Facebook page that would change the course of the Honduran way of migrating. The message published on his profile on the social network on September 26, 2018, mentioned that:
“The best thing would be to come out together and organize from Honduras, showing our faces, without hiding. To go out shouting to the world that they are leaving because they have been robbed of their opportunities here and because those who are supposed to protect them have become threats to their lives. If they go together, they can support each other, protect themselves from threats and demand respect for their rights as people in any country they find themselves in. There are already groups that are looking to get better organized in the coming weeks, and I hope they can get support from the organizations that work for migrants” rights."
The governments that persecute undocumented migrants are to blame for the thousands who died on the way, for those who ended up mutilated and for those who we don't know the end of because they lost communication with their families many years ago.
If you have plans to go, don't go alone. Don't feel ashamed, because migrating is not a crime.”
What are the 3 main reasons for joining the caravan?
Although this was not a completely new method of making the journey, the number of participants and the “professionalization” of caravan management by the people in transit themselves made it possible for increasingly organized groups to migrate more safely.
Between 2016 and 2019, 3,555 crimes were reported against migrants, mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Out of every five migrants who are victims of a crime, such as human trafficking, sexual abuse, kidnapping, extortion and robbery, four are from these countries.
It's worth remembering that the big Mexican cartels control points of entry and exit from the country, and have learned to diversify their activities, turning migrants into targets. The kidnapping of migrants, for example, consists of demanding that the victim contact their family and ask them to pay high sums for their freedom. In the case of girls, women and transgender women, torture and sexual crimes are the most common. According to Amnesty International, six out of ten female migrants suffer sexual violence during the crossing. Often, the aggressors are the intermediaries hired to help them cross the northern Mexican border, known as “coyotes” or “polleros”.
The tactic of traveling in a caravan allows groups to establish their route without depending on the services of such middlemen, which reduces the costs of the endeavor. According to the Mexican Migration Project, in the 1990s the cost of crossing the border with a caravan was coyote was around 600 dollars, while in the following decade the figure rose to between 1,000 dollars and 1,700 dollars, while today the amount can reach 9,000 dollars. Considering that there is no guarantee of success in the operation, the high investment may be in vain. Some migrants report that their coyotes offered the possibility of trying two or three times for the same amount - however, this is not a rule.
The third fundamental element is the correlation of forces imposed by the migrant crowd compared to the small clandestine groups. The massive influx in the eyes of the world requires organizations, entities and governments of all levels to respond to long-standing problems that have not been tackled properly. The caravans demonstrate the inability to create decent conditions to prevent the exodus and the successive repressive and failed policies for dealing with those who do not meet the minimum requirements to be able to enter the United States with their papers in order. In the opinion of Ismael Moreno, a religious activist from El Progreso, the caravan could be something political, but its protagonists are not seeking a transformation of society - they feel abandoned by capitalism.
How are migrant caravans organized?
WhatsApp groups were already organizing when Fuentes“ post was published. His greatest impact was to set a date for the first caravan to meet. When asked by the media if he was a coyote, Fuentes denied it, replying that ”I told them (migrants) that they shouldn't go, that they had to stay to change the country. But once they had made up their minds, what should we do? Abandon them?.
The first caravan of 2018 was formed in San Pedro Sula (Honduras) from a public call whose signs read: “Self-call: Migrant Walk. We don't go because we want to: violence and poverty drive us away”. The walk, which began with a small group of 160 people, was joined by new people along the way and, in nine days, already had around 2,000 people.
Social networks are one of the main tools for communication between those willing to join a caravan. It is estimated that around 300 Hondurans emigrate every day from their home country to the United States. The organizing pages on social networks provide the necessary information so that these people don't have to face the journey alone and have a better chance of reaching “the other side”.
Faced with the magnitude of the caravan, different governments sought to blame the situation. In 2018, one name resonated as the one “behind” the mass flight from the Central American country: Honduran journalist, politician and activist Bartolo Fuentes. The former MP for the Freedom and Refoundation (Libre) party is a well-known defender of migrants“ rights and accompanied the first caravan to Guatemala, where he was arrested and deported. Regarding the various accusations made, including by his country's own government, Fuentes went so far as to declare that they were ”looking for scapegoats to avoid recognizing that Honduras is experiencing a terrible human tragedy".
Source: MigraMundo