Reporter's notebook: Poverty, not politics, stimulates migrants in caravan

Reporter's notebook: Poverty, not politics, stimulates migrants in caravan https://i0.wp.com/www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cuaderno-del-reportero-La-pobreza-no-la-política-estimula-a-los-migrantes-en-caravana.jpg?fit=219%2C146&ssl=1

Reporter's notebook: Poverty, not politics, stimulates migrants in caravan







ABC News has been on the road for four days with the more than 7,000 migrants heading north to the US border. UU And Mexico in search of security and a better life.





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The images show the great number, and the desperation, that these people face. Many are fleeing the violence that has torn their countries of origin, or waiting for the opportunity of a better life earning the minimum wage in the United States. Among them are young children, pregnant women and people with disabilities. They walk all day, they sleep on the floor, they endure blisters on their feet, dehydration and hunger, they stop to relieve themselves where they can.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
A migrant child who can barely continue to get into a truck to rest during the caravan to Tapachula, Mexico.

Every day is overwhelming. But unlike any other place these migrants have been, the impoverished city of Huixtla at least offered some battered portable toilets. There are about 10 bathrooms for the more than 7,000 migrants estimated to be here. The stench is so intense that people waiting in the long line to use it cover their faces with tissues, their shirts or even the toilet paper they are about to use.



Compared to the rest of what these migrants have endured, this is a small indignity. People collapsed everywhere along the route. On Monday, we went through the body of a man crushed when he fell off the truck in which he was traveling. The plate could not cover all the blood on the asphalt. Thousands of migrants had to walk alongside the 22-year-old body. On Tuesday, the migrants rested in Huixtla after marching 52 miles in two days.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Thousands of immigrants continue their march on October 21, 2018, blocking a large part of the main road to Tapachula, Mexico. 

They are fleeing poverty, some of the highest homicide rates in the world and neighborhoods controlled by violent gangs. Most of the migrants in the caravan are from Honduras, where more than 64 percent live in poverty, according to the world Bank.



In addition to gang violence, dissidents, minorities and LGBTQ people have been subject to political violence in Honduras. Last year's presidential elections in the country were marred by widespread reports of fraud and violent repression about the protesters. The Central American nation has also struggled with one of the highest homicide rates outside of a war zone in the world.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Dozens of migrants appear from the back of a semi truck after filling it up to capacity on the way to Tapachula, Mexico.

Many told us they can not continue. It is too hot Their bodies can not take it. The city of Huixtla was also overwhelmed. Described as a "poor and small town" by a city official, it has been closed for much of the past two days. The raised sidewalks in the center of the city were full of flattened cardboard boxes converted into few mattresses. The migrants lay on the sidewalks too narrow to accommodate the bodies, so the members hung on the street. The extension of bodies radiated from the town square where a camp had been installed.



The government of the city, headed by a young director of internal affairs, Bernardo Castañeda, went to help them. In addition to portable toilets, the city installs tents that it normally uses for festivals to protect migrants from the tropical sun and their companion, the afternoon rain. Trucks distributed throughout the day distributing food.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Meylin Bardales, 2 years old, travels in the caravan with her mother. "Mom made the decision to join the caravan in one day, she needs work," Meylin said.

Local charities spent most of Monday making 5,000 sandwiches, cooking soup and roasting chickens. Their generosity is humiliating: transparent plastic bags full of milk, water, bread, tortillas and chicken were distributed to hungry people. Migrants swept their makeshift living areas and municipal workers picked them up while mountains of garbage were forming.



A few hours after the arrival of the migrants, the doctors of the city were left without medication to distribute. Local Red Cross workers sat on the back bumpers of their ambulances the next day, rubbing hundreds of feet in search of suppurating blisters, rot, sprains and infected wounds. There is a constant grime that accumulates around the neck and in all the other cracks and curves of the body, and many suffer from red rashes angry by the heat.



There is no definitive census of the number of children in the caravan, but there must be hundreds. Some spent the day doing what the adults around them wished they could do: screaming with rage and frustration at the heat, the inability to find solace in the concrete and the crushing possibility of 1,500 more miles of conditions like this. After spending days with these people, what stands out is a remarkable duality: the discomfort that exhausts the soul and the will to continue.



On Wednesday, it's another 25 miles to the next city.



Mexican authorities have drawn a very thin line in the sand, demanding that migrants apply for asylum before leaving the southern state of Chiapas or face deportation. But it could be days before they leave Chiapas.



Even then, many wonder what logistics would be like. How do you round out so many people? What if they resist? What about families with children? It seems that there are no answers to those questions.



The organizers of the caravan continue to insist that it is not politics, but poverty and murder that drives this group. ABC News spoke with some of the people who make the trip and try to help. These are your stories.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Maria Lucia Vigil Bardales holds her 2-year-old daughter, Meylin, but said she had to leave her 13-year-old daughter behind.

Maria Lucia Vigil Bardales and her daughter, Meylin Bardales, 2

Migrants from San Pedro Sula, Honduras



"Mom made the decision to join the caravan within a day, she needs work," said Meylin Bardales, 2. Maria Lucia Vigil Bardales said she had to leave her 13-year-old daughter to make the trip. "Leaving my family behind is the hardest part," he added.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Ann Louisa is from Guatemala City and joined the caravan of migrants heading to the border of the United States.

Ann Louisa

Migrant from Guatemala City, Guatemala.



"Not all of us who fled are bad."





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Monserrat, 4, and Emily, 2, left San Pedro Sula, Honduras with their father, said the trip has been difficult for children, both physically and emotionally.

Monserrat, 4, and Emily, 2

Migrants traveling with their father from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.



"I have gone for violence and security," said the father of the girls, who did not give his name. "The trip is very hard because of the sun". He also said that the trip has caused "emotional problems" to the children, who are not used to this life.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Gadiel Gutiérrez, 16, lives in Huixtla, Mexico, where the caravan stopped. "All we can do is welcome them and have empathy," he said of migrants traveling through his city.

Gadiel Gutiérrez, 16

Resident of Huixtla, Mexico



"All we can do is welcome them and have empathy," Gutiérrez said of the migrants who sleep in their city before continuing north.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Astrid Daniella Aguilar, 18, and Kenssy Roque, 16, are the best friends who travel together in the caravan.

Astrid Daniella Aguilar, 18, and Kenssy Roque, 16.

Migrants from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.



The girls are the best friends who travel together in the caravan. Sitting on a staircase in the central square of Huixtla, they entertained themselves by applying a cheap and bright lipstick. Both said that at home, schools do not have books, there is no medicine or work.



"Walking is the hardest part," Aguilar said. "I think I'll see my parents again, I do not know when."



When we asked about his parents, Aguilar told us that his father is in the hospital after being stabbed. She said he was assaulted by his phone and some money on his way to work, part of the endemic violence in Tegucigalpa. Both girls said that their biggest concern during this trip is being sexually assaulted.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Cesar Mejía, 23, joined the caravan in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where there has been a lot of anti-LGBTQ violence.

Cesar Mejia, 23

Migrant from San Pedro Sula, Honduras



"I was discriminated against and beaten, so it was time to leave," Mejía said of his decision to leave Honduras, where violence against LGBTQ prevails.



"At first I was afraid to use the flag (of the rainbow), I did not know how people would react, in Guatemala, people asked me what country the flag was and I told them it was the flag of the world," he said. He said. "If I had the opportunity to reach the border, I could show my representation of the community and ask for asylum because there is much less discrimination than in Honduras."





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Kimberley Olivares, 20, said she brought her 3-month-old puppy with her to the caravan in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Kimberley Olivares, 20, and Doll.

Migrant from San Pedro Sula, Honduras



"I brought him because he's part of the family," Olivares said of his three-month-old puppy.





Robert Zepeda / ABC News
Belem Moreno, 25, is a volunteer with the Red Cross in Mexico and said that this is the largest group she has ever dealt with.

Belem Moreno, 25

Volunteering with the Mexican Red Cross.



"I have been treating people with open sores on their feet, heat exhaustion, fainting, seizures, stomach pains and children who have fallen and have burns on their feet," Moreno said. She said that this is the largest group she has ever dealt with.

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