On October 13 in San Pedro Sula (Honduras) the second migrant caravan began. Around 7000 Honduran people, among other nationalities, have already entered Mexico and are marching toward the US border. Trump´s xenophobic speech, the 5200 soldiers he sent to the border and his threat to retire the right to citizenship of immigrants´’ children born in the US, do not stop them.
While I write these lines, two parts of the caravan are traveling through Mexico. According to La Jornada (10/31/2018) the first part of the caravan, of around six thousand, arrived in Juchitan, Oaxaca and the other column of two thousand people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador reached Tapachula, 25 km away from the border, being the group that suffered the most injuries by police repression. Besides, another five hundred people from El Salvador are concentrating on the border of the Aztec country.
The “caravan that is running away from hunger and death” is one of the many names the most numerous caravan in recent history has been given. It is these peoples´ desperate attempt to save their lives. They do not care about the thousands of kilometers they must walk, the hunger, the inclemency of weather, the repressions, the threats of not allowing them into the US, for thousands, some with their children, decide to be part of this journey.
The reasons are simple and clear. It’s enough to go over some of the testimonies that repeat over and over like some sort of pre-arranged script. On top of the lack of employment, the misery, the impossibility of escaping extreme poverty, the corruption and the arbitrariness of a political regime that -with the support of the US- imposed a president that lost the elections, they now also face the violent actions of the organized mafia, the maras. This is what drives them to get out to save their lives, as if it was a war. It is not unlike the refugees from Syria, the Middle East or Africa.
By heading towards the giant in the North, this humanitarian disaster catches everyone’s attention and opaques the other great migratory disaster in the region, the Venezuelan emigration. And the smaller, though important, migration of 30.000 refugees from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, escaping Ortega’s repression.
This migration uncovers the conditions of misery and exploitation in the North triangle (Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala), of the US´s “backyard” that is on the brink of exploding, or is already doing so, if we interpret this spontaneous phenomenon as a new expression of the Central American people who can’t stand to continue living as they do.
The migrant column has overcome the repression for now. The most important clash was perhaps the closing of the bridge that crosses the Suchiate river, that separates Guatemala and Mexico, and the attempt to stop them with the security forces sent by Peña Nieto, solicited by Trump. This phenomenon is so massive that the threats of the US president of withdrawing the assistance to the countries of the region where the caravan comes from and the daily collaboration of the government of the PRI with the US have been unable to stop the caravan.
The resources destined to repatriate those who couldn’t bear the sacrifice, the promises of a temporary residency, work and assistance of the current Mexican government, in another attempt to stop them, could not break the will of thousands to get to the US, a destiny in which being second-class citizens and workers means having a future compared to the terrible living conditions in their home countries.
The solidarity of the workers that the caravan crosses in its path helps the migrants cover their basic needs to carry on. A helping hand that has a lot to do with class solidarity, with the generosity of those who do not have much of their own to spare.
The path of the migrant caravan builds up tension, kilometer after kilometer, towards a violent confrontation. Beyond Trump´s electoral use of the caravan -according to the New York Times it helps him develop his xenophobic discourse and could improve his electoral performance- promising measures that are actually unconstitutional, like taking away the right to citizenship of the children of iundocumented immigrants born in the US, the caravan must be stopped.
Not doing so will mean that new and bigger caravans that are already being prepared in the Central America will set out, because the caravan is the resource that migrants have found to face a journey full of dangers, harassment, repression and in many cases, death.
A painful journey of defenseless small groups, that started by trying to pass the police controls in the south border of Mexico and found obstacles in the hands of people traffickers and other scammers. A hell on earth where coyotes advise women to travel with condoms, to avoid a possible rape turning into murder if they resist. Safety in massive numbers is now the method that their experience established as the safest and that encouraged thousands to face this trip.
The role of the governments
Trump’s pressure of threatening to cut economic assistance, such as the one given by the Alliance Plan for the Prosperity of Central America, gave results. Jimy Morales from Guatemala send the National Guard to dissuade the migrants. Juan Orlando Hernandez from Honduras militarized the border and blamed, in consonance with US officials, the party of former president Zelaya. The president of El Salvador denounced he passing of migrants through his territory towards Mexico. Trump said: “Mexico must stop this onslaught, and its incapable of doing so, I’ll send the US army and close the southern border”. A clear signal for Peña Nieto to send his riot control teams and tear gas on the migrants. This had the gratefulness of the US leader: “Thank you Mexico, we’re looking forward to working with you!”
The Mexican government has traditionally combined the lack of protection for migrants that cross its territory, victims of criminal gangs, with the presence of security groups that control migration flow in the southern states, mainly Chiapas and Oaxaca.
None of these measures could stop the caravan, mostly because the government had a late response to this caravan that surprised everyone with its rapid growth, both in time and dimension.
Trump and xenophobia
The crisis of the political regimes is sinking the traditional “center” variants, generating a polarizing effect. This is why the xenophobic speeches of Trump or Bolsonaro have an impact in desperate sectors, affected by the hardships of the economic crisis, and try to find in them a possible solution, since there’s a lack of a clear anti-capitalist left alternative.
This rhetoric is used for subduing the cheap workforce that does the worst jobs in the US. There’s states, like Arizona, where undocumented people are classified as criminals, which helps the bosses to exploit them even more.
This persecution and discrimination isn’t new. Obama expelled 3 million undocumented immigrants during his two terms. Trump has done nothing but deepen this policy, also using it as a campaign speech against those who supposedly “steal Americans’ jobs” or pollute their lives with their “criminality”. The images of children separated from their parents and locked in cages still injure the eyes.
This policy is complemented with deportations of immigrants that have lived for years in the US and that are suddenly separated from their families to send them to their home countries. The deportation numbers are growing every year. As an example, 32,000 people were deported to Honduras during 2017 and only in the first semester of 2018 the numbers have grown to 36,500.
The Mexican government has also adopted this policy by deporting thousands of Central Americans in the last years. With the caravan, the media has enhanced the worst xenophobic prejudices of part of the Mexican people.
The resurgence of xenophobia and racism can only be explained by the decadence, by the crisis of capitalism in its imperialist phase. One of the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis has been a brutal attack on the workers and the people of the world. Xenophobic groups use the prejudices of the middle class and marginalized sectors, trying to blame other workers and oppressed people of the evils of capitalism and its ruling class, behind their pseudo-nationalist populist discourse.
This is why the struggle for basic democratic rights and against racism (among them, the rights of migrants and minorities) is an elemental task in the struggle against imperialist exploitation. Racism may at first appear as a manifestation solely against poor people, but it can rapidly spread to those who do not share the imperialist model, as it happened recently in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, where local people mobilized against Trump’s visit.
Where racism is strong, as now in Brazil, the most massive action unity to fight and stop it before it consolidates is essential.
The migratory avalanches reflect the sinking of whole sectors of people under imperialist super-exploitation, and the crisis and wars it generates. According to the UN, the amount of migrants in the world has risen from 173 million in the beginning of the century to 244 million in 2015, without taking into account 40 million people who are displaced within their countries.
This is why the phenomenon of migration caused by humanitarian crisis, cannot be resolved without a radical change of the socioeconomic model. A change toward a socialist, anti-capitalist system.
Support the caravan demanding its right to migrate.
The right to migration for a better life is an essential democratic human right. The imperialist bourgeoisie, responsible, along with its local puppet governments, of the impoverishment and degradation of the exploited countries´ societies, also has the cynicism of being the self-proclaimed defender of its national workers, trying to pit them against migrant workers who can’t live in the conditions that that same bourgeoisie has generated in their home countries.
Now it’s more important than ever to defend the right of the caravan to reach its destination. We must demand that the government of Peña Nieto and to the soon president Lopez Obrador not impede the transit of the caravan, and to assist them with food, medical assistance, temporary shelter and transport so they can reach their immediate destination on the border of the US.
It is fundamental to continue and improve the campaign of solidarity that different Mexican organizations are already developing, like Las Matronas de Veracruz, and other actions by university media from the City Of Mexico like the collecting of migrant bags with food and clothing.
The same must be done against Trump’s wall. The mobilization of workers, humanitarian, leftist, democratic organizations must raise solidarity with the caravan, that is facing the measures of the xenophobic racist that leads the main world power, and demand Trump pull out of the military and the repressive apparatus, allow the migrants to enter US territory and access their right to asylum.
Gustavo Giménez