[WSMDiscuss] People in movement…, The US in movement…, Mother Earth in movement… : Hundreds of migrant caravan groups arrive at US border (Maria Verza and Elliot Spagat)

[JS CACIM]

Thursday, November 15, 2018

People in movement…, The US in movement…, Mother Earth in movement…

[The moment of truth is arriving…

[The language that the big media uses to portray what is unfolding though, is still sad, and revealing : “Hundreds of migrant caravan groups arrive at U.S. border”… (but just what is a “migrant caravan group” ?); “Thousands of Central American migrants march for the US border” (“march” ?) - all of which only subliminally sets up – and mirrors – the Trumpian vision of the world, which is about a world of violence, a world in endless war…

[The print version of the paper in which I’ve seen this article though, The Globe and Mail, has a wonderful photograph accompanying it that shows ‘the wall’ somewhere near the ocean, in other words either the Gulf of Mexico of the Pacific – and people crawling along the very top of the wall, like squirrels !  But you can see a similar but somewhat less fun photo and many others at the second article given here :

Hundreds of migrant caravan groups arrive at US border

Maria Verza and Elliot Spagat

In Photos : Thousands of Central American migrants march for the US border

The Globe and Mail



Hundreds of migrant caravan groups arrive at U.S. border

Maria Verza and Elliot Spagat
Tijuana, Mexico
The Associated Press
Published November 14, 2018 Updated 13 hours ago
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-first-group-in-migrant-caravan-arrives-at-us-border/ <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-first-group-in-migrant-caravan-arrives-at-us-border/> 

 <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-first-group-in-migrant-caravan-arrives-at-us-border/#comments>
Open this photo in gallery  <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/qphErFCzdj4KrKfHnfU1lOh2llg=/620x0/filters:quality(80)/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/U6YXEJUMPJB6JG4CUMD564R46Y.jpg>
Central American migrants are seen near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 13, 2018.

ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images

Migrants in a caravan of Central Americans arrived in Tijuana by the hundreds Wednesday, getting their first glimpse of the robust U.S. military presence that awaits them after President Donald Trump ordered thousands of troops to the border.

Several hundred people from the caravan got off buses and made their way to a shelter on the Mexican side near the border to line up for food. Doctors checked those fighting colds and other ailments while several dozen migrants, mostly single men, spent the night at a Tijuana beach that is cut by a towering border wall of metal bars.

Several Border Patrol agents in San Diego watched them through the barrier separating the U.S. and Mexico. American troops carrying machine-guns stood near the agents next to recently installed concertina wire atop a stretch of the barrier.

The first wave of migrants in the caravan, which became a central theme of the recent U.S. election, began arriving in Tijuana in recent days, and their numbers have grown each day. The bulk of the main caravan appeared to be about 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometres) from the border, but has recently been moving hundreds of miles a day by hitching rides on trucks and buses.

Many of the new arrivals were waiting in Tijuana to make their next step to enter in the U.S., either by illegally crossing the border or by seeking asylum at a port of entry.

In Photos: Thousands of Central American migrants march for the U.S. border <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/gallery-in-photos-thousands-of-honduran-migrants-march-for-the-us-border/>
U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, meanwhile, visited U.S. troops posted at the border in Texas and said the deployment provides good training for war, despite criticism that the effort is a waste of taxpayer money and a political stunt. Most of the troops are in Texas, more than 1,500 miles from where the caravan is arriving.

The first arrivals generally received a warm welcome from Tijuana, despite the fact that its shelter system to house migrants is at capacity. The city’s secretary of economic development has said there are about 3,000 jobs for migrants who want to stay in the city. Some residents came down to where the men were camped on a beach and gave them tacos to eat Wednesday.

The Central Americans in the caravan are the latest migrants to arrive in Tijuana with the hope of crossing into the United States. Tijuana shelters in 2016 housed Haitians who came by the thousands after making their way from Brazil with plans to get to the U.S. Since then, several thousand Haitians have remained in Tijuana, finding work. Some have married local residents and enrolled in local universities.

“Mexico has been excellent; we have no complaint about Mexico. The United States remains to be seen,” said Josue Vargas, a migrant from Honduras who finally pulled into Tijuana on Wednesday after more than a month on the road.

Douglas Matute, 38, of Honduras, said he arrived Wednesday in a convoy of nine buses. Matute, who joined the caravan with his brother to flee violence and poverty, said he heard rumours that Canada and European countries would offer work visas and said he was also holding out hope that the U.S. Congress would pave the way for him to legally enter the country. Until a clearer picture emerged, he said, he would stay in Tijuana and wouldn’t attempt to cross the border illegally.

A few people pitched tents at the Tijuana beach plaza while most, like Henry Salinas, 30, of Honduras, planned to sleep there in the open.

He said that he intended to wait for thousands more in the caravan to arrive and that he hoped to jump the fence in a large group at the same time, overwhelming Border Patrol agents.

“It’s going to be all against one, one against all. All of Central America against one, and one against Central America. … All against Trump, and Trump against all,” he said.

On Tuesday, a couple of dozen migrants scaled the steel border fence to celebrate their arrival, chanting “Yes, we could!” One man dropped over  to the U.S. side briefly as border agents watched from a distance. He ran quickly back to the fence.

Tijuana’s head of migrant services, Cesar Palencia Chavez, said authorities offered to take the migrants to shelters immediately, but they initially refused.

“They wanted to stay together in a single shelter,” Palencia Chavez said, “but at this time that’s not possible” because shelters are designed for smaller groups and generally offer separate facilities for men, women and families.

But he said that after their visit to the border, most were taken to shelters in groups of 30 or 40.

[VIDEO]
Mexican authorities said 398 Central American migrants travelling in caravan, arrived in the border city of Tijuana on Wednesday. The Associated Press
On Wednesday, buses and trucks carried some migrants into the state of Sinaloa along the Gulf of California and farther northward into the border state of Sonora.

The Rev. Miguel Angel Soto, director of the Casa de Migrante in the Sinaloa capital of Culiacan, said about 2,000 migrants had arrived in that area. He said the state government, the Roman Catholic Church and city officials in Escuinapa, Sinaloa, were helping the migrants.

The priest said the church had been able to get “good people” to provide buses for moving migrants northward. He said 24 buses had left Escuinapa on an eight-hour drive to Navojoa in Sonora state.

Small groups were also reported in the northern cities of Saltillo and Monterrey, in the region near Texas.

About 1,300 migrants in a second caravan were resting at a stadium in Mexico City, where the first group stayed several days last week. By early Wednesday, an additional 1,100 migrants from a third and last caravan also arrived at the stadium.

Like most of those in the third caravan, migrant Javier Pineda is from El Salvador, and hopes to reach the United States. Referring to the first group nearing the end of the journey, Pineda said, “if they could do it, there is no reason why we can’t.”

Mexico has offered refuge, asylum and work visas to the migrants, and its government said Monday that 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them during the 45-day application process for more permanent status. Some 533 migrants had requested a voluntary return to their countries, the government reported.



In Photos
In Photos: Thousands of Central American migrants march for the U.S. border

The Globe and Mail
Published October 22, 2018 Updated 23 hours ago
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/gallery-in-photos-thousands-of-honduran-migrants-march-for-the-us-border/ <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/gallery-in-photos-thousands-of-honduran-migrants-march-for-the-us-border/>
About 4,000 undocumented Honduran migrants are marching north through Mexico to the US border. A second, smaller group of 1,000 or so migrants is more than 200 miles behind the first caravan. A third band of about 500 from El Salvador has made it to Guatemala, and a fourth group of about 700 set out from the Salvadoran capital Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.


______________________________

Jai Sen

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/> / http://www.openword.net.in

Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / NEW publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/> and in Canada at www.leftwingbooks <http://www.leftwingbooks/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?, Indian edition.  New Delhi : Authors Upfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/> and in Canada at www.leftwingbooks <http://www.leftwingbooks/>
Recent publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2016a  – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?  and Jai Sen, ed, 2016b – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance (both forthcoming in 2017 from New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press), ADVANCE PREFINAL ONLINE MOVEMENT EDITIONS of all the material @ www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/>
CHECK OUT CACIM @ www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/>, OpenWord @ http://www.openword.net.in <http://www.openword.net.in/>, and OpenSpaceForum @ www.openspaceforum.net <http://www.openspaceforum.net/>
AND SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum for the exchange of information and views on the experience, practice, and theory of social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global), including the World Social Forum.  To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20181115/847cdb48/attachment.htm>