Venezuelan migrants protest at Mexico’s borders over new US policy

Venezuelans who insist on entering the United States despite new immigration policies that restrict them protested this Friday on the southern and northern borders of Mexico, claiming that they are “unfair” measures after the harsh exodus from their country.

In Chiapasa caravan of about 1,000 Venezuelans was making its way down a highway through the hot region, hoping to reach the United States.

In the northeast, meanwhile, dozens protested at one of the border bridges that join the state of Tamaulipas with Texas, which forced to close the passage through that route.

This week, an agreement between Washington and Mexico determined that 24,000 Venezuelans will be able to enter the United States through a formal request and by air, frustrating the effort of those who try to cross from Mexican territory.

Enduring the Chiapas sun and guarded by a National Guard patrolman, Sandy Araujo, a 22-year-old Venezuelan, told AFP that the measure should have been informed in advance to migrants like him who have been on the painful road for weeks.

“It’s unfair because many of us have already come tired, exhausted, looking to pass, so they give us this news and it’s really quite hard (…) But we keep going,” he stressed.

Shouting “yes we can!”, the Venezuelans and some migrants of other nationalities left Thursday night from Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala and the starting point of the many caravans that have traveled through Mexico in recent years.

According to the new migration agreement, Mexico will receive Venezuelans who cross illegally from its territory for humanitarian reasons.

Meanwhile in Matamoros, a city bordering the US Brownsville, dozens of Venezuelans, chained and with their hands painted white as a sign of peace, sought to cross into the United States through the Gateway International Bridge, local media reported.

The authorities of that country closed the crossing, reported the US consulate in Matamoros, which also asked its employees and citizens to avoid the area.

Last Wednesday, a first group of about 100 Venezuelans was returned to Ciudad Juárez as soon as the new policy came into force.

The Mexican government began requesting visas from Venezuelans as of last January, prompting thousands to try to cross the country clandestinely or in caravans.

Since October 2021, US authorities have counted more than 155,000 Venezuelans entering through its southern border, more than triple the number in the previous period.