A child drinks water outside an office of the migration institute in Cerro Gordo as migrants participate in a caravan after growing impatience waiting for a humanitarian visa to cross the country and reach the U.S. border, in Cerro Gordo in Huixtla near Tapachula, Mexico July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Torres
Thousands of people set off on foot from southern Mexico early Friday morning, undeterred in their efforts to reach the United States even after the deaths of at least 53 migrants in Texas this week highlighted the dangers facing many migrants.
The group, mostly of young men from Central America, Venezuela and Cuba, included families walking with children and babies in strollers.
Migrants line up outside a migration institute office in Cerro Gordo as they participate in a caravan after growing impatience waiting for a humanitarian visa to cross the country and reach the U.S. border, in Cerro Gordo in Huixtla near Tapachula, Mexico July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Torres
"I'm fleeing Cuba with my wife and daughter because of the suffocating, criminal, assassin Castro-Canel dictatorship," migrant Samuel Ventura said.
The migrant caravan began in the city of Tapachula, near the Mexico-Guatemala border, following two others organized earlier this month with large contingents of Venezuelans. Both caravans disbanded in nearby towns.
Asked about the Monday deaths of migrants in an overheated tractor-trailer in Texas, people in the caravan expressed sympathy, with some saying they were walking to avoid the danger of taking other modes of transportation.
A man carries his sleeping daughter as he walks along with other migrants in a caravan after growing impatience of waiting for the humanitarian visa to cross the country to reach the U.S. border, in Tapachula, Mexico July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Torres
"We really are in mourning," said Moises Velez, a migrant from Venezuela. "It hurts all of us."
(Reporting by Jose Torres; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Richard Chang)
A man carries his son as he walks along with other migrants in a caravan after growing impatience of waiting for the humanitarian visa to cross the country to reach the U.S. border, in Tapachula, Mexico July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Torres Migrants walk in a caravan after growing impatience of waiting for the humanitarian visa to cross the country to reach the U.S. border, in Tapachula, Mexico July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Torres
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