TAPACHULA (Mexico) On Saturday, more than 2,000 migrants, mainly Central Americans began to walk out of a southern Mexican city where they had been trapped.
They walked along the highway that leads west and north to the U.S. border and passed a line of police officers trying to stop them.
Although there were some minor fights, a child with a very small head injury sustained by one of the migrants was able to continue on his way.
They only made it a few kilometers to Alvaro Obregon, before resting for the night on a field.
Jos Antonio, a Honduran migrant, refused to reveal his last name as he was afraid it might affect his case. He said that he had been waiting for two months in Tapachula to hear back on his visa request.
The construction worker said that they told me to wait as appointments were full. Tapachula has no job, so I joined this group out of necessity.
He stated that he hopes to reach Monterrey, the northern city, in order to find work.
Smaller attempts at similar escapes were stopped by the National Guard, Immigration Agents and Police earlier in the year.
Tens of thousands of migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti have been waiting in Tapachula to get asylum or refuge papers which would allow them travel. However, they are tired of the delays.
The march that began Saturday from Tapachula didn't include as many Haitian migrants. Thousands of them crossed the border to the United States at Del Rio, Texas in September.
National Guard troops dressed in riot gear stopped several hundred Central Americans, Haitians and Cubans who were walking along a Tapachula highway.
Mexico requires that migrants seeking asylum or humanitarian visas in Mexico must remain in Chiapas (next to Guatemala) to allow their cases to be processed.
A larger caravan of migrants attempted to flee Honduras in January but was stopped by Guatemalan authorities.
Although the marches are very reminiscent of the migrant caravans crossing Mexico in 2018 or 2019, they are not nearly as large.
