Migrant caravan in south Mexico demands corridor to border

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — An estimated 2,000 migrants walked out of this southern Mexico city Friday, saying they are not interested in visas and permits the government has issued in efforts to dissolve other caravans and calling instead for buses to the U.S. border.

The latest group comes just two weeks after an even larger one left Tapachula, coinciding with a summit of hemispheric leaders hosted by the United States. Most of those migrants were issued temporary documents and transit visas allowing them to board buses and continue north through Mexico.

The documents usually give migrants a month or more to regularize their status in Mexico or leave the country. Most migrants use them to reach the U.S. border.

But migrants walking Friday said that authorities in other parts of Mexico have not respected those documents and many migrants were returned to the south.

“The march doesn’t want a 30-day permit. The march doesn’t want a humanitarian visa,” said Venezuelan Jonathan Ávila, one of the group’s self-appointed leaders. “We want organizations and the government ... to set up a humanitarian corridor.”

He said they want buses to carry them to the U.S. border. “The visa doesn’t work,” he said. “With the visa they return us, they tear it up.”

At an initial highway checkpoint on the outskirts of Tapachula, authorities watched the migrants pass without intervening.

Frustrated migrants have long complained about Mexico’s strategy of containing them in southern Mexico, where there are fewer job opportunities. The Mexican government has essentially left only the path of applying for asylum for the migrants, which many do not qualify for and which has overwhelmed the system’s capacity, creating delays.

“(The wait) is too big of an expense,” said Colombian Janet Rodas,...