Caravan attracts diplomats and denouncers in Tijuana
The Honduran diplomat said he came to express solidarity with his many compatriots who have descended on this border town in recent days as part of the Central American migrant caravan.
“These are our people, we want to do what we can for them,” Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico, told reporters Saturday during a morning visit to a sports facility here that is currently home to more than 2,600 migrants, mostly Hondurans. “In Honduras we respect human rights.”
His presence drew angry reactions from a number of camp residents, who labeled the current, U.S.-backed government in Tegucigalpa a corrupt regime that maintains autocratic rule over a largely impoverished society.
“If we had work and a proper government in Honduras we wouldn’t have had to embark on this difficult trip and live outdoors,” complained Maria Ramirez, 33, who said she was an outdoor fish vendor back in her hometown of San Pedro Sula, where the caravan started more than a month ago. “How dare he come here and say he wants to help us!”
The ambassador’s entourage kept the diplomat shielded from the angry migrants, many of whom are expected to seek political asylum in the United States, asserting that they face persecution in their homeland.
“This ambassador and all the other politicos from Honduras should be in jail!” declared Hugo Lara, 28, from the Honduran town of Copan. “They stole all the money!”
The interaction between the ambassador and the migrants soon ended as the diplomat continued his rounds and the migrants wandered off. It marked just another small ironic wrinkle in the ongoing saga of the caravan.
As more caravan members straggled into Tijuana on Saturday, where they have received a mixed reaction, most joined the more than 2,600 housed at the Benito Juarez sports facility, about a block from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The tall fence, across a busy highway, separates Tijuana from San Diego, but migrants can only see the sky above California. The fence blocks views of the land across the border line.
The Honduran ambassador, as well as a number of Mexican officials, visited the camp on Saturday as an expanding number of international media crews also arrived in Tijuana, keen to tell the story of the migrant caravan, which traveled about 3,000 miles to get here. Journalists lined up for limited access hours in the morning and afternoon, even as President Trump, who focused an unrelenting publicity blitz on the caravan prior to the recent U.S. election, has since stopped talking about it.
Officials in this city of 1.6 million are wondering where to house the expanding ranks of migrants, whose numbers are expected to grow to as many as 10,000 in coming days.
The Tijuana mayor, Juan Manuel Gastelum, has labeled many of the migrants criminals and “bums” and said he was contemplating calling for a referendum on whether the city should accept them. On Sunday, some residents opposed to the migrants’ presence are planning a protest march. There is also talk of a pro-migrant counter-demonstration.
Several migrants sleeping in the gymnasium said they heard rocks landing on the roof of the facility overnight, which they viewed as a hostile act.
But not everyone is hostile to the new arrivals in this border town that has long hosted northbound migrants — and where most residents trace their origins to other parts of Mexico. Residents of Tijuana regularly drove up to the sports facility, donating food and clothing for the migrants.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-caravan-20181117-story.html