Activist leading 3,000-migrant caravan toward U.S. has lips sown shut to protest Mexican government
The group consists of 3,000 migrants from Latin America and Asia and has been traveling by foot since Sunday and expects to reach Mexico City next Tuesday
An immigration activist and six migrants had their lips sewn shut in an effort to pressure the Mexican government into providing documents that would permit migrants the opportunity to move freely towards the United States border.
Irineo Mújica, an activist with dual Mexico-United States citizenship, was joined by migrants from Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela in having their mouths stitched Tuesday in Huixtla, Chiapas.
The group of 3,000 migrants is making its way from Mexico toward the U.S. southern border.
The decision to sew their lips close was also done to show support for the families of the 40 migrants who died in a National Institute of Migration detention center in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez on March 27.
Mújica, who founded the Pueblos Sin Fronteras activist group, had previously called on the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to try National Institute of Migration director Francisco Garduño in court for the migrant deaths.
Immigration activist Irineo Mújica has his lips sewn shut to pressure the Mexican government to provide legal documents to migrants that would permit them to move freely through the country
At least 3,000 migrants from Central and South America as well as Asia have joined a caravan that is traveling to Mexico City
A migrant has their lips sewn shot during a protest in Mexico on Tuesday
'A state crime should not go unnoticed, Mexico does not represent this violence perpetrated against 40 migrants,' Mújica told EFE.
Anderson Ordoñez, one of the 3,000 migrants who joined the caravan that is traveling to Mexico City and the country's northern border region with the United States, was among the six migrants who had their lips sewn by a Dominican Republic nurse, who plans to seek asylum from the U.S.
'There are people who have gone to the United States by train, we do not want to risk our lives,' said Ordoñez, who left Colombia a month and a half ago and has traveled across seven countries.
'We want them to help us,' he said of the Mexican government. 'We bring our documentation, we are not thugs, we are people who want a good future for ourselves and our children.'
A migrant sews his own mouth to protest the Mexican government's slow response to provide migrants a permit that would allow them to transit freely
Children and adults who joined the 3,000 migrant caravan rest in Huixtla, Chiapas, before continuing on to Mexico City
A migrant family travels down a road in Huixtla, Chiapas, with other members who make up the caravan of 3,000 individuals who plan to seek asylum from the United Stares
Brazilian national Paulo Henrique said there has been growing concern over the safety of women and children who joined the caravan Sunday in the Chiapas city of Tapachula have walked 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, it is a form of dialogue with the Mexican government,' Henrique said.
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 would continue the journey northward, posing a challenge to the administration of President Joe Biden, which is planning on how to handle the likely arrival of tens of thousands more migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border after the anticipated end of COVID-19 restrictions next month.
Source: Daily Mail
