Reuters have put faith in the last caravan of Mexican migrants fighting Venezuelans

By Jose Torres and Lizbeth Diaz

VILLA COMALTITLAN, Mexico (Reuters) – Hundreds of Venezuelans are in a caravan of migrants heading from Mexico’s southern Guatemalan border this week, according to organizers, as they look into tougher restrictions on access to Mexico.

Reuters spoke to a dozen Venezuelans, who on Thursday said they had fled the caravan of about 3,000 people from the city of Tapachula to escape poverty and hardship in their hometown, where elections are taking place this weekend.

Luis Garcia, one of the organizers of the caravan, said Venezuelans made up between 20% and 30% of the group. During their trip from South America, especially in the Dari region of Panama, they related some tragic episodes.

“I don’t want to stay in Mexico, we want to go to the United States, we want to let it pass,” said Daysi, a 63-year-old Venezuelan from the city of Maracaibo, who joined the caravan. six siblings, including two of his children.

“No one leaves their country because they want to, but there are those you eat once a day, others don’t even that, there’s no medicine, there’s nothing, we’re dying.”

The National Migration Institute of the Government, which tried to break the caravans, could not say how many Venezuelans were in the group, as well as Central Americans.

The number of Venezuelans crossing Mexico has risen in 2021, and Reuters reported last week that the government is considering imposing stricter entry conditions to stop the flow.

The caravan, the second major to leave Tapachula in a month, has made slow progress and on Saturday reached the town of Villa Comaltitlan in the state of Chiapas.

Another 34-year-old Venezuelan woman from Caracas, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told Reuters by phone that she had been beaten and raped by two of Darien’s hoodlums, but decided to continue “through the power of God”.

“They put a gun in my mouth,” he said. “I couldn’t say no to the dead women who were there who resisted.”

Reuters was unable to verify his story, but shared a document with doctors showing that he had recorded a sexual assault. She also planned to return to the United States to return money to her child and mother in Venezuela.