Migration routes to Mexico

The economic, social and humanitarian crisis in some countries on the Asian and African continents have taken Ecuador as the starting point to reach the United States.

The route for hundreds of migrants from China, India, Arabia, Nigeria and Cameroon, who leave their country of origin by air bound for Ecuador, a country where its immigration authorities do not request a visa from tourists.

The same thing happens in Venezuela, where the exodus leads them to walk kilometers to cross the borders of Colombia. At this point, groups of citizens from Asia, Africa and South America begin a 5,750 kilometer journey to cross the Darién jungle to Mexico, known as “The Darién Gap” that connects South America with Central America.

According to Dinna Rivera, a citizen of Venezuela, she commented to Grupo Imagen that the journey through the hectares of the Darién jungle is a martyrdom because in that area the criminal organization “Clan del Golfo” predominates, who have criminal activities such as migrant trafficking.

He added that during his journey he saw dozens of deaths and had the need to drink contaminated water from its rivers.

“First we traveled from Caracas to Colombia, Medellín; From Medellín we entered the jungle through Acandí, we lasted two and a half days, it was hard, we saw dead; We spent there, we had to drink river water, it was pollution, we were very sick to our stomach, because the conditions were strong, we already ran out of drinking water and we had to drink river water.”

In the case of migration from Haiti and Cuba, maritime routes are essential to reach one of the 25 ports of Panama or, failing that, to the six commercial ports that Nicaragua has.

On the Panama or Nicaragua routes, transfers are by foreign buses to the Guatemala border; That's where the nightmare of the American dream begins.

For Disan Saavedra, a resident of Holguín, Cuba, his status as a political prisoner forced him to leave his native island to avoid being killed. The route he took was by sea to reach Nicaragua, where he began his journey by land in various transports to the banks of the Suchiate River, on the Guatemalan side, to cross for 50 quetzales (120 pesos) to Mexico, a journey on rafts. of 10 minutes.

“Walking, most of the time walking, today to get here that was terrible, because last night they got us off a bus and we had to make that journey on foot for almost 30 km and to date we still haven't been able to resolve anything here” .

From the first hours of the day, activity on the border strip between Mexico and Guatemala begins in reverse; That is to say, from the Guatemalan side hundreds of migrants leave for Chiapas and from this entity hundreds of basic basket products and other products, informal trade without payment of tax.

Once you arrive at Ríos Suchiate, “The door to Mexico”, a 439-kilometer journey awaits you, which can be on foot or by bus to reach one of the Migrant Mobility Centers that the three levels of government have installed in the municipality of Juchitán. , Oaxaca.

Here, with the payment of the cost of their ticket, they are transferred without problems to Mexico City. This prevented the municipality from being overwhelmed in its urban services due to the migrant exodus.

In an interview for Grupo Imagen, the municipal president of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Miguel Sánchez Altamirano, highlighted that the coordinated work helped prevent migration from wandering in his municipality.

“We have been working together, the three levels of government and we are already with that mobility center, which has helped us a lot, on the issue of public spaces, on the issue of garbage, on issues of road reorganization and so on. circumstances that generated the issue of migrant passage.”

The destination of the majority of the migrant exodus from Africa, Asia, South America and Central America, momentarily, is the “paradise” of Mexico City where the laws of the National Migration Institute (INM) are not applicable and thus they can work with the purpose of raising money to continue their destiny to the United States.

Their stay will be between three and five months on the streets of the country's capital, to connect with those who take them to the northern border starting from Mexico City, passing through the State of Mexico, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León to reach Piedras Negras.

The next route they take is Mexico City, passing through the State of Mexico, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Durango and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua or, failing that, Mexico City, passing through the State of Mexico, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Durango and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Sonora until reaching Tijuana, Baja California.

Routes that are known by the criminal organizations of the Northeast Cartel, Golfo, La Nueva Familia Michoacana and other minors that do their illegal business of kidnapping migrants under the protection of the authorities of the three levels of government.

You can also read: Shocking images of the rollover in which 10 migrants died in Pijijiapan

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