Yesterday
, a caravan of central-American mothers entered the Mexican territory to cross seven states, stopping at Mexico City for 15 days in search of their migrant children who went missing when traveling to the United States .
The members of the 14th Caravan of Missing Migrants’ Mothers arrived at the Mexico-Guatemala border location of El Carmen-Talismán yesterday at noon, carrying pictures of their families and flags from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua .
“Where are they, where are they, where are our children!?”
roared the crowd as they entered the national territory.
A group of 24 women , accompanied by human rights activists , started the tour in Chiapas , where the mothers met with members of the central-American caravan who are currently on their way to the United States.
Upon entering Huixtla , the group of migrants received the central-American women and both groups sang the national anthem of Honduras together .
Mary Martínez
, one of the mothers, said that it pained her to see so many people from her country in that dire situation and requested Mexican authorities to let them through, “because they are not criminals, they just want to get to a place where they can provide for their families.”
According to the coordinator of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (MMM) , Rubén Figueroa , the mothers will join the initiative to protest against conditions of poverty and violence in Central America , which have caused the forced displacement of thousands of people , mostly families with children and adolescents .
The caravan of mothers will raise their voice and ask the United Nations Organization (UN) to intervene and assist 8,000 migrants who started traveling from Honduras to the United States 12 days ago .
Figueroa explained that the Central American mothers would tour the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Veracruz, Irapuato, Morelia, Puebla, and Mexico City , in hopes of finding their missing children.
This year, the group of mothers will participate at the World Summit of Missing Migrants’ Mothers and will also take part in the World Migration Forum on November 2, 3, and 4 .
The mothers have not lost their faith. For 13 years , many of them have scouted the country looking for their sons and daughters, visiting shelters, prisons, and holding centers for migrants.
Until now, the caravan has reunited at least 270 families .
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