MAPASTEPEC/MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Thousands of Honduran migrants advanced on Wednesday under an inclement sun through southern Mexico on their long journey to the United States, defying pressure from Washington, which has demanded that its neighbor from the south to stop the extensive caravan.
The exodus of women, men and children, which left on October 13 from the violent Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, has been growing and, according to the Government of Mexico, is now made up of about 3,600 people. The United Nations has put it at around 7,000 and some of its collaborators at around 10,000.
"From walking so much (...) I got hurt. I wasn't wearing proper walking shoes," said Neris Wong, on the verge of crying while lifeguards treated his blisters in the town of Mapastepec, in the state of Chiapas, where the caravan rested. after traveling dozens of kilometers.
The town's mayor, Carla Valdenegro, told Reuters that although the town is a transit point for Central American migrants, they had never received so many at once. "We are used to them happening (...), but we have never seen them in this quantity," he said.
A separate group of at least 1,000 migrants, also mostly Hondurans, was advancing from the Guatemalan city of Zacapa, seeking to meet, at some point, the main caravan. Some local media claimed that it was made up of around 2,500 people.
The torrent of migrants, who sometimes walk and sometimes hitchhike, has unleashed the anger of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has warned that he will close and militarize his border and that he will reduce economic support to Central America for not stopping it.
"Pence is a crazy extremist"
US Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández told him that the caravan was "organized by left-wing groups and financed by Venezuela."
But Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday mocked those comments.
"If it weren't for the fact that an extremist says it, a crazy extremist, like Mike Pence (...) one would only laugh at that, the first thing it provokes is laughter and the second is concern because imperialist paranoia is already beginning to accuse the president Maduro and Venezuela of everything that happens to them," he said.
Alex Mensing, coordinator of the Pueblo Sin Fronteras association that accompanies the caravan, also dismissed Pence's version by assuring that it is "a humanitarian crisis situation that has been going on for many years. This is not something that arose out of nowhere." ".
"The idea that someone could pay 10,000 people to convince them to leave their country, their homes, is ridiculous," he said in a conference call with reporters from California. He added that it is not yet known what direction the caravan will take, which he describes as a "massive exodus of people," nor does he believe that many will reach the United States.
Reuters could not independently verify how many people have joined the march.
"I think it is very unlikely that 10,000 people will arrive together in a border city between Mexico and the United States. There will be people who stay in Mexico, there will be people who go to different borders because everyone comes with their different plans. "he added.
In Mapastepec, local residents waited along the road for the migrants to give them water, bananas or soups. In a local park, those who arrived gathered and lay down on the ground to rest. Some set up tents with plastic bags to protect themselves from the sun.
Every year, thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans flee poverty and violence at home in search of the "American dream." However, many are deported and others lose their lives on the long journey from Central America.
Since the weekend, Mexico has received 2,727 refugee requests from the group of Central Americans, including children, but has warned migrants that they will not be able to enter its territory illegally.
Illegal immigration is likely to be a major issue in the November 6 US legislative elections, as Democrats seek to gain control of the House of Representatives.
Claims made in recent days by Trump and some conservative activists in Washington, that "criminals and strangers from the Middle East" would be mixed with the caravan, have not been corroborated.
(Reporting by Delphine Schrank in Mexico; Corina Pons and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; Writing by Ana Isabel Martínez and Diego Oré; editing by Gabriela Donoso and Pablo Garibian)
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