The second migrant caravan, believed to be armed with bombs and guns, crossed into Mexico on Monday despite a huge police presence.
Hundreds of migrants following in the footsteps of the first caravan heading to the U.S. border crossed a river from Guatemala.
A low-flying police helicopter hovered overhead as the migrants waded in large groups through the Suchiate River’s murky waters, apparently trying to use the downdraft from its rotors to discourage them.
Guatemala’s Noti7 channel reported that one man drowned and aired video of a man dragging a seemingly lifeless body from the river.
Once on the Mexican side the migrants were surrounded and escorted by black-uniformed officers as sirens wailed.
The second group back at the Guatemalan frontier has been more unruly than the first that crossed. Guatemala’s Interior Ministry said Guatemalan police officers were injured when the migrant group broke through border barriers on Guatemala’s side of the bridge.
Mexico authorities said migrants attacked its agents with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks when they broke through a gate on the Mexican end but were pushed back, and some allegedly carried guns and firebombs.
On Monday, Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida lamented what he called a second ‘violent attempt’ to storm the border, accusing people of placing the elderly, pregnant women and children at the front, putting them at risk of being crushed.
‘Fortunately, that did not happen,’ he said.
The second migrant caravan, including members believed to be carrying bombs and guns, crossed into Mexico on Monday despite a huge police presence. Cops are seen allowing some of the migrants on the banks of the Suchiate River after the arduous crossing, but they were stopped from moving any further
The migrants were met by hundreds of federal officers in riot gear on the river bank. It followed a night of violence that left one Central American dead
Central American migrants walk along the highway near of Ciudad Hidalgo after crossing to Mexico from Guatemala willing to reach the U.S.
The second group back at the Guatemalan frontier has been more unruly than the first that crossed. Guatemala’s Interior Ministry said Guatemalan police officers were injured when the migrant group broke through border barriers on Guatemala’s side of the bridge
Hundreds of Central American migrants are seen on Monday attempted to wade through the brown waters of the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico
The caravan migrants are seen making their way through the river on Monday in Tecun Uman, Guatemala
A helicopter of the Mexican Police flies over members of the second migrant caravan, mostly Hondurans, as they cross the Suchiate River
The standoff at the riverbank followed a more violent confrontation that occurred on the bridge over the river Sunday night, when migrants threw rocks and used sticks against Mexico police. One migrant died from a head wound during the clash, but the cause was unclear.
Hundreds of miles up the road in southern Mexico, the first caravan of some 4,000 migrants resumed its advance, still at least 1,000 miles or farther from their goal of reaching the United States as the Pentagon announced it would send 5,200 active-duty troops to ‘harden’ the U.S.-Mexico border. There are already more than 2,000 National Guard troops providing assistance at the border.
The caravan currently has about 4,000 people but has been dwindling. Earlier this year, only about 200 from a caravan of some 1,000 migrants reached the Tijuana-San Diego frontier.
The Pentagon announcement comes as President Donald Trump has been focusing on the caravan to stir up his base a week before midterm elections. On Monday he tweeted: ‘This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!’
Dust clouds are created by a Mexican Federal Police helicopter flying close to the Suchiate River in order to create a downwash force to discourage the migrants bound for the US border
A new group of Central American migrants bound for the US border, wade in mass across the Suchiate River that connects Guatemala and Mexico Monday
The first group of migrants was able to cross the river on rafts – an option now blocked by Mexican Navy river and shore patrols
Aerial view showing migrants reaching Mexico after crossing the Suchiate River from Tecun Uman in Guatemala to Ciudad Hidalgo in Mexico
Baby strollers are seen being carried by migrants above the surface of the water during their river crossing Monday
Some migrants packed their belongings in black garbage bags to protect them from the water
Central American migrants form a human chain to help one another cross the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico