Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that during the recent wave of migration, up to 16,000 migrants have been arriving daily at Mexico’s northern and southern borders.
“In recent times, through the Darien Gap, which is a very dangerous area, up to 4,000 migrants arrived crossing the borders of Colombia and Panama towards southern Mexico. Once they reached the border of Chiapas, the number increased to 6,000 daily, and last week, it reached 10,000 migrants daily at the northern border,” he stated.
These statements come amid an “unprecedented increase in migrants in Central America and Mexico,” as warned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) last week.
The Mexican leader provided these figures while discussing an accident that left 10 migrants dead, mostly from Cuba, and 15 injured in a traffic accident in the Mexican municipality of Pijijiapan, 150 kilometers from the border city of Tapachula in the southern state of Chiapas.
López Obrador acknowledged that migrants “cross Mexico with many risks, human rights violations, gangs that kidnap migrants, murders, and accidents due to the use of poorly maintained trucks.”
Mexico is currently experiencing a new wave of migration in recent weeks, as evidenced by train suspensions due to the presence of thousands of migrants on freight cars and tracks, protests at the borders, camps along the Rio Grande on the border with the United States, and clashes with Mexican and U.S. authorities.
In this context, the president reiterated his call for “a plan for development and cooperation, in partnership with the United States, for the benefit of the peoples of Central America, the Caribbean, and other Latin American countries.”
The president mentioned that a U.S. delegation consisting of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Attorney General Merrick Garland is arriving in the Mexican capital this week.
He also emphasized his intention to meet with foreign ministers from countries that are the source of migrants, with the aim of presenting a proposal to U.S. President Joe Biden in a possible meeting in Washington.
“We will have a meeting with officials from the United States and also with foreign ministers of neighboring countries to address the migration issue in these days, to address the causes, which is what we have always been expressing and, moreover, doing because we provide assistance,” he concluded.
TYT Newsroom
