The Via Crucis migrant caravan, which journeys by freight train every year through Mexico from its border with Guatemala to raise awareness of the plight of Central Americans looking for a better life in this country and/or the United States, arrived last Tuesday in Guadalajara, where they were taken in and inspected by the Region Sanitaria XII, Centro-Tlaquepaque branch of the state’s Health Ministry.
Behind them is close to a month of traveling from their starting point in Tapachula, Chiapas, during which they made multiple stops.
The first Via Crucis caravan was organized 15 years ago by migrant advocacy group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, who have faithfully done the same every year since. This year, according to chief organizer Irenio Mujica, about 1,100 people – hailing mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – participated in the long, arduous trip. About 650 of that original number, according to health officials, have made it to Guadalajara, making it one of the largest - if not, in fact, the largest, if you believe local priest Alberto Ruiz Perez - groups of Central American migrants to arrive en masse to the city.About 80% of the arrivals were women and children.
Among the spaces whose doors were opened for the pilgrims’ succor and rest were Father Perez’ Nuestra Señora del Refugio, a church around which flows busy Calzada Federalismo. Various governmental and non-profit organizations – in addition to students at the University of Guadalajara and the Federation of University Students - were also on hand to distribute food, various necessities and used clothing.
One caravan sub-group stood out from the rest: a collection of persons belonging to the LGBTQ community. Among them were several transexual women, fleeing homophobic violence meted on members of that community in their home countries. They too were put up in the Refugio, specifically in its top level.
A few of the migrants who arrived in Guadalajara this week have decided to stay and try their luck in Mexico’s second largest city, although the majority packed up their meager belongings and continued their journey north on Thursday. Some interviewed this week by local media said they had fled their Central American homelands to escape being dragged into criminal gangs, and were simply looking for a better life for their families. Most said their preferred final destination was the United States.
The caravan’s next stop is Mazatlan, Sinaloa. According to organizer Mujica, the band of asylum seekers hopes to arrive at Mexico’s northern frontier by April 24.
The caravan’s arrival in Guadalajara followed on the heels of a blast of anti-immigration rhetoric from U.S. president Donald Trump two weeks ago. The president, via his usual bully pulpit of Twitter, claimed that “Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S.”
However, Trump’s assertion flies in the face of reality. Mexico detains and deports thousands of Central Americans each year, equal or greater than the number repatriated to their respective countries by the United States. What looks to Trump like the Mexican government’s lackadaisical approach to illegal immigration is, in fact, deliberate; in Mexico, migrants have the right to seek asylum inside the country as well as out.