It seems some 5000 Guatemalans have crossed into Mexico, and intend on traveling to the US. Is anyone organizing or supporting this effort? Churches? Aid groups? I’m just thinking about bathrooms, food, and medical support for 5000 poor people.
I posted this in GD, because I anticipated some debate as to immigration/asylum, or the US’s response might result. But I was mainly interested in any information people might have as to who organized or is supporting this apparent coordinated effort. Or did it simply occur organically, with the participants fending for themselves as they progress?
Not saying you’re doing this but why should there be an assumption of outside coordination? Couldn’t it simply be that these people found themselves in an untenable situation, heard others were leaving, and decided that was the best option?
I understand the question. I suppose my title should have been ** Who - if anyone - is organizing/supporting the “caravan.”**
I see a couple of different issues. First, as you suggest, did 5000 people simply decide at the same time to leave? Or did a smaller group decide, and numbers just grew? I suppose that is possible, though I have no personal experience with groups just spontaneously forming like that. It seems as tho even protest marches and letter writing campaigns have SOME amount of organization - whether by interest groups, a small core of people, etc.
But the second issue concerns support during the effort itself. Yes, I suppose there might be no support/organization. The participants could simply be supporting themselves “off the land”, and/or could be depending upon kindness of people/entities they encounter. My frame of reference is US parades/runs/festivals/etc. Porta-potties, food and aid stations, traffic/crowd control. I realize there is nothing of such scale for this caravan, but I’m wondering what - if any - coordination is taking place.
Glad you started this thread. I was thinking of doing so, myself. Not about who started it, but the logistics of keeping these people alive as they trek across Mexico. My understanding is that it’s 7,000 (not 5,000) and many of them are small children. How do they manage to get food, water, etc every single day as they walk over 1,000 miles? I saw on the news last night how some folks were helping them with food and water, but it would seem to be a monumental task to rely on chance charity as opposed to some organized effort to keep people from dying or at least halting due to exhaustion.
I understand a certain logic behind the caravan idea since migrating alone or in small groups puts people in significant danger from gangs and other violent people, but the large group has its own challenges with logistics.
According to this article published yesterday, the crowd is receiving donations of food and clothing from Mexicans they pass by, and those that have been officially processed by Mexican authorities are bused to a camp to receive food, and some aid from the Red Cross.
Probably could have posted this in the Elections thread, where I see many/most of the folk are Honduran.
And an NPR article cited there says organized crime is largely responsible for these caravans, as they prey on/profit from them. Makes some sense to me.
Just to be clear, they prey on smaller groups. There is relative safety in a group that numbers in the thousands. Not only do you have your fellow trekkers to rely on, but the whole operation is being filmed and monitored by the authorities. Not that there is no danger of being the victim of violence, but just less danger.
Back in mid-40, when the Germans were absolutely positively going to be stopped by the Army somewhere around Belgium because they couldn’t pass the Maginot Line and whhoooops didn’t anticipate them going through the Ardennes instead, this is kinda bad ; thousands upon thousands of French, Belgian, Dutch and Luxemburger people from immediately picked up sticks and started moving south on foot, with no plan whatsoever beyond “not being here when Ze Germans arrive”. Plenty died on the roads, be it of dehydration & hunger, or being bombed or strafed by airplanes and German troops because many deserters & escaped troops tried to hide in the chaos.
Frightened, beleaguered, desperate people do desperate things. It’s a thing that happens.
I’ve never been a Mexican criminal mastermind myself, but in my ignorance it made some sense that if I saw profit to be made from preying on migrants, it might be worth my while to send “advance men” to encourage folk to put themselves where it would be convenient for me to prey on them.
And from what little I hear/read, it seems as tho some portion of the group are regularly falling out and returning south, which might remove them from the group’s numerical security.
Had heard for some time of “coyotes” who would charge migrants to assist them crossing into the US, often abandoning them along the way. If there’s a steady stream of vulnerable people to prey on, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that organized crime got involved.
Speaking of organized crime, Trump and his all thumb administration on this issue, will get the situation worse if they do manage to eliminate the aid going to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as he has promised.
Organized crime will get an early Christmas gift because removing that aid will lead to more unrest and more money for their crime groups; and then more immigrants with nothing left to lose will do more treks like the one in the OP.
My question is why are the proudly flying the Guatemalan and Honduran flags?
I mean 1. if they are so proud of their country why not stay and try and improve it and 2. if I was trying to impress a country I was hoping to get asylum in, why not fly American flags?
Hey, these days, while I’m still proud to be an American, I’m not terribly thrilled with a lot of the things that are happening in my country (and that my government is doing), either.