Flüchtlingskarawane in die USA fordert ersten Toten
Am Sonntag wurde der 26-jährige Henry Diaz aus Honduras von einer Gummikugel so schwer am Kopf verletzt, dass er auf dem Weg ins Krankenhaus starb. Über hundert Migrant*innen wurden verletzt, als sie versuchten, die Grenze nach Mexiko zu überqueren. Als Ursache für die Abwanderung nennen Experten inzwischen den Klimawandel, der die Bauern zwingt, ihr Land zu verlassen. Das US-Verteidigungsministerium hat angekündigt, 5.000 Militärs an die Grenze zu verlegen. Und Trump plant die Errichtung von Zeltstädten entlang der Grenze, durch Migrant*innen abgeschreckt werden sollen.
Honduran killed in Mexican border crackdown on migrant caravan
Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas as more than 1,000 migrants and refugees attempted to cross border into Mexico.
A Honduran man was killed late on Sunday as the crackdown on migrants and refugees walking from Central America to the United States intensified.
Henry Diaz, a 26-year-old Honduran, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet, causing a deep head wound. He died on the way to a local hospital.
Diaz was among more than 1,000 migrants and refugees, most of them from Honduras, who attempted to force their way through the Tecun Uman crossing on Sunday. Police also used tear gas; more than 100 people were wounded.
The group at the Mexican border on Sunday are attempting to catch up to the initial wave of now more than 7,000 migrants and refugees who began their journey north more than two weeks ago. The group has been dubbed a migrant caravan. […]
The Tecun Uman border crossing, the principal crossing between Guatemala and Mexico, has been closed for more than a week. Blocked from crossing, groups of Hondurans travelling up through Guatemala gathered until they had a sizable group to attempt to enter Mexico together.
After migrants and refugees broke through a border gate and tried to force their way past Guatemalan police, officers deployed tear gas, batons and flash-bang grenades. People in the crowd responded by hurling tear gas canisters back at police, along with any items they could find, including tree branches, water bottles, and even personal backpacks.
Among those injured were children, according to local news reports. Several police officers were also wounded, the Guatemalan national police force said. […]
The unseen driver behind the migrant caravan: climate change
Thousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.
But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change.
Most members of the migrant caravans come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – three countries devastated by violence, organised crime and systemic corruption, the roots of which can be traced back to the region’s cold war conflicts.
Experts say that alongside those factors, climate change in the region is exacerbating – and sometimes causing – a miasma of other problems including crop failures and poverty.
And they warn that in the coming decades, it is likely to push millions more people north towards the US. […]
Pausing for a rest as the first of the three recent migrant caravans passed through the Mexican town of Huixtla last week, Jesús Canan described how he used to sow maize and beans on a hectare of land near the ancient Copán ruins in western Honduras.
An indigenous Ch’orti’ Maya, Canan abandoned his lands this year after repeated crop failures – which he attributed to drought and changing weather patterns.
“It didn’t rain this year. Last year it didn’t rain,” he said softly. “My maize field didn’t produce a thing. With my expenses, everything we invested, we didn’t have any earnings. There was no harvest.”
Desperate and dreaming of the United States, Canan hit the road in early October and joined the migrant caravan. He left behind a wife and three children – ages 16, 14 and 11 – who were forced to abandon school because Canan couldn’t afford to pay for their supplies.
“It wasn’t the same before. This is forcing us to emigrate,” he said. “In past years, it rained on time. My plants produced, but there’s no longer any pattern [to the weather].” […]
Latin American asylum seekers hit US policy “wall”
Trump’s new restrictions mean long waits simply to register claims
The movement of thousands of Central American asylum seekers and migrants north from Honduras towards the southern border of the United States has precipitated threats from US President Donald Trump – ahead of next week’s midterm elections – to block the group’s entry by deploying troops to the US-Mexican border. […]
[…] Dort könnten dann die Flüchtlinge untergebracht werden, die derzeit in Mexiko auf dem Weg in Richtung Vereinigte Staaten sind. Trump sagte dem Sender Fox News, wenn die Menschen es bis zur Grenze schafften und dann Asyl beantragten, sollten sie in den Zelten warten. Nach geltendem Recht dürfen einreisende Migranten einen Asylantrag stellen. Wer erste Überprüfungen übersteht, wird in der Regel ins Land gelassen, während das Verfahren läuft. Das kann Jahre dauern.
Das US-Verteidigungsministerium kündigte an, mehr als 5.000 Soldaten an die Grenze zu schicken. […]
US-Präsident Donald Trump schickt 5200 Soldaten an die Grenze nach Mexiko. Sie sollen Migranten aus Honduras und Guatemala stoppen. Doch zur Übernahme von direkten Grenzschutzaufgaben sind die Soldaten gar nicht berechtigt. […]
Migrationsrouten durch Mexiko
Trump macht Wahlkampf mit den Migranten
Donald Trump hat die Migranten-Karawane als Wahlkampf-Thema lieb gewonnen. Er spricht von einem «Angriff auf unser Land» und einem «nationalen Notstand». Ausserdem behauptet er, dass Demokraten für die Karawane bezahlen, dass Terroristen aus dem Mittleren Osten mitlaufen und dass Drogenbanden dabei sind.
«Alles klare Lügen», sagte Politikwissenschaftler T. J. Pempel von der Universität von Kalifornien vergangene Woche zu BLICK. «Aber genau solche Geschichten lieben seine Anhänger. Das wird ein Anstieg der republikanischen Wähler zur Folge haben, weil sie glauben, Trump beschütze ihre Grenzen vor Kriminellen.»
