Mexico deploys military to block migrant caravan

Washington

Mexico ordered the military to deploy along its southern border to block a migrant caravan that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested was linked to the US election. Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants were traveling through Guatemala, heading for the United States via Mexico, just weeks before a tense US presidential vote in which immigration is a key issue.

“It seems very strange to us. It’s very strange that this caravan leaves on the eve of the election in the United States,” Lopez Obrador told reporters. “It has to do with the election in the United States. I don’t have all the elements but I think there are indications that it was put together for this purpose,” he added.

The migrants, mostly young men, surged across the border from Honduras into Guatemala on Thursday despite restrictions linked to the coronaviruses pandemic. Many were not wearing masks to protect against the spread of infection. Some returned to their country after the Guatemalan government ordered them to be detained and deported. Mexico will deploy hundreds of military and immigration personnel to its border to prevent the caravan from entering the country, a senior government official said.

“They’re not going to cross,” Francisco Garduno, the head of the Mexican migration authority, told reporters. Garduno said the migrants must “respect the immigration law.” Lopez Obrador, however, said that Mexico wanted to avoid a confrontation with the caravan. In recent years, thousands of Central American migrants traveling in large groups have crossed into Mexico, with the aim of reaching the US border.