Migrants ask for an end to their ordeal

Above these lines, a group of migrants participates in a station of the cross this Good Friday in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. On the left, another group performs a Stations of the Cross from the Padre Chava dining room and Albergue Salesiano, in Tijuana. Dozens of migrants of various nationalities participated in the ritual

CIUDAD JUÁREZ (EFE).— Migrants camping on the Rio Grande carried out a Stations of the Cross this Good Friday on the border of Mexico with the United States to ask the governments of both countries to end the policies that have caused them so much suffering.

The Stations of the Cross covered nearly 300 meters along the bank of the US side of the Bravo, where some of them have been camping for more than three days in front of the razor wire barricade and under the surveillance of the Texas National Guard.

In the end, they fitted a cross into the barbed fence that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has placed, with the legend “Bless the migrant, listen.”

“We ask you, Mr. Governor, to be sensitive, this is not a migratory number, these are families that come from countries immersed in misery, in violence, this via crucis represents social indifference,” said Carlos Mayorga, coordinator, at the event. from the Ángeles Messengers collective.

The activist added that it is regrettable that governments ignore the need for these migrants to abandon everything they have in their countries to seek a better future in the United States.

“We crucify each of the migrants who carry their cross with our indifference, with the passivity of the president of the United States (Joe Biden), with the indifference of the governor of the state of Chihuahua (where Ciudad Juárez is), Maru Campos. “said the activist.

“It is sad that each one of them, each minute, each hour, each day, represents a via crucis because no one wants to listen to them,” he added.

A migrant woman, a man and a child carried the cross symbolically to remember the path of suffering of Jesus Christ and to represent that they live their own way of the cross every day.

“This via crucis was something painful, like what we are feeling firsthand,” said María Patajalo Ramos, a 31-year-old Ecuadorian who carried the cross during the last stage of the journey.

This occurs while tension grows between Mexico and the United States over migration, since the presidential elections in both countries coincide in 2024.

“I have been here for three days and the only thing we ask of the President of the United States is to give us asylum, to listen to our stories because it is something terrible that we are experiencing in the country of Ecuador,” added the woman from Ecuador.

He said that the hardest part of his own journey of the cross is having left his two children in his country, where it is increasingly difficult to survive the violence and the economic crisis, according to what he said.

“Extortion, a lot of crime, which is not enough for us to be able to support our family. In my case, I have two children, one who is 12 years old and one who is one and a half years old, and I had to leave them because the economic situation is very bad,” she added.

He said that on the way to the border they suffered robberies, slept on the street, and now they find themselves with a barbed wire wall that is almost impossible to cross.

Throughout the event, surveillance on the Texas side increased.

Point 36 of the border between Juárez and El Paso has been one of the epicenters of the migratory flow in 2023, when Mexico reported an increase of nearly 77% in irregular migration with more than 782,000 undocumented foreigners detected.

In Tijuana, dozens of migrants of various nationalities participated in the first Via Crucis Migrante, as a way to make their difficulties visible.

The religious Daniel Novelo Huerta, from the LaSalle Center, shared that “it was not a traditional way of the cross, but rather a way of the cross with a lot of symbolism of what migrants are experiencing.”

DeathShipwreck

Eight people die in a shipwreck in the Pacific

Eight dead

Eight dead and one survivor left a shipwreck that occurred in the Mexican Pacific, state authorities announced yesterday.

Found in Oaxaca

The bodies of the eight people – presumed to be migrants – were found in the afternoon on the shores of the town of Playa Vicente, in the municipality of San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca.

damaged ship

According to the initial report, the victims were aboard a boat that crashed off the coast of Oaxaca.

Asian origin

The authorities rescued a man who claimed to be a survivor of the shipwreck, who showed identification by which it is presumed that he and the rest of the victims would be of Asian origin, indicated the Prosecutor’s Office, which did not specify where the individual was found.