The momentary activist leading a caravan of 3,000 migrants has shut his lips to protest the Mexican government’s slow response to providing documents that would allow the migrants to reach the US border.
- The lips of activist Ireneo Mujica and 6 migrants were sutured on Tuesday in Mexico
- The decision to do so was made in protest of the Mexican government’s delay in providing permits that would allow migrants free movement in the country.
- The group, made up of 3,000 migrants from Latin America and Asia, has been traveling on foot since Sunday and is expected to arrive in Mexico City next Tuesday.
The lips of an immigration activist and six immigrants have been sealed in an effort to pressure the Mexican government into providing documents allowing the migrants to move freely toward the US border.
Ireneo Mujica, the Mexican-American binational activist, was joined by immigrants from Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela in stitching up their mouths on Tuesday in Huixtla, Chiapas.
The group of 3,000 immigrants makes their way from Mexico toward the southern border of the United States.
The decision to sew their lips was also taken as a show of support for the families of 40 migrants who died in a detention center of the National Institute of Migration in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez on March 27.
Mujica, who founded the activist group Pueblos Sin Fronteras, had previously called on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration to prosecute the director of the National Institute of Migration, Francisco Gardúño, in court over the migrants’ deaths.
Immigration activist Ireneo Mujica sews his lips together to pressure the Mexican government to provide migrants with legal documents that will allow them to move freely across the country.
At least 3,000 immigrants from Central and South America as well as Asia have joined a caravan traveling to Mexico City.
An immigrant sews his lips with bullets during a protest in Mexico on Tuesday
“The crime of the state should not go unnoticed, Mexico does not represent this violence committed against 40 migrants,” Mujica told EFE.
Anderson Ordonez, one of the 3,000 migrants who joined the caravan traveling to Mexico City and the country’s northern border region with the United States, was among six migrants whose lips were sewn by a nurse from the Dominican Republic, who plans to seek asylum. from the United States
“There are people who went to the United States by train, and we don’t want to risk our lives,” said Ordóñez, who left Colombia a month and a half ago and traveled through seven countries.
“We want them to help us,” he said of the Mexican government. “We bring our documents, we are not thugs, we are people who want a good future for ourselves and our children.”
A migrant sews up his mouth in protest of the Mexican government’s slow response in granting migrants a permit that allows them to cross freely
The children and adults who joined the 3,000-strong migrant caravan rest in Huixtla, Chiapas, before continuing on to Mexico City.
A migrant family travels on a road in Huixtla, Chiapas, with other members forming a 3,000-strong caravan planning to seek asylum from United Stars.
Brazilian national Paulo Henrique said there was growing concern about the safety of the women and children who joined the caravan Sunday in the city of Tapachula in Chiapas, covering nearly 26 miles in three days.
“We are willing to do what is necessary so that they get us a visa and we can move forward,” Henrique said, “It is a form of dialogue with the Mexican government.”
The migrant caravan expects to complete the 750-mile journey to Mexico City by May 3.
While some are expected to remain in the Mexican capital, many will continue the journey north, posing a challenge to President Joe Biden’s administration, which is planning how to handle the potential arrival of tens of thousands of migrants to the United States and Mexico. Borders after the expected end of COVID-19 restrictions next month.
