8A Saturday, November 3, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WORLD
Third migrant caravan enters
Mexico, heads for US border
Salvadoran migrants cross the Suchiate river, the border between Guatemala and Mexico,
on Friday, Nov. 2. A new group of Central American migrants has started on its way North
with the stated purpose to make to the United States.
BY SONIA PEREZ D.
Associated Press
DONAJI, Mexico — A
third caravan of migrants—
this time from El Salvador
— waded over the Suchiate
River into Mexico on Fri
day, bringing another 1,000
to 1,500 people who want to
reach the U.S. border.
The third caravan tried
to cross the bridge between
Guatemala and Mexico, but
Mexican authorities told
those traveling in it they
would have to show pass
ports and visas and enter in
groups of 50 for processing.
The Salvadorans
expressed misgivings that
they would be deported,
so they turned around and
waded across a shallow
stretch of the river to enter
Mexico.
Although police were
present, they did not try to
physically stop the migrants,
who later walked along a
highway toward the nearest
large city, Tapachula.
Mexico is now faced with
the unprecedented situa
tion of having three cara
vans stretched out over 300
miles of highways in the
southern states of Chiapas
and Oaxaca, with a total of
about 6,000 migrants. The
first, largest group of mainly
Honduran migrants entered
Mexico on Oct. 19 and is
now in Donaji, Oaxaca.
Though the first caravan
once numbered as many
as 7,000, Mexico’s Interior
Department estimated that,
as of Friday, it numbered
only 3,000 people.
The second caravan,
also of about 1,000 to 1,500
people, entered Mexico
earlier this week and is now
in Mapastepec, Chiapas.
The second group includes
Hondurans, Salvadorans
and some Guatemalans. In
addition, the government
identified a fourth, smaller
group of 300 Central Ameri
can migrants walking fur
ther ahead, in the Gulf coast
state of Veracruz.
It remained unclear
whether the first caravan
will make a turn east to
Mexico City, or try to reach
the nearest and most dan
gerous stretch of border,
which lies almost directly
north. Divisions began to
appear among caravan par
ticipants about what route to
take.
It also remained unclear
how many migrants would
make it; 20 days of scorch
ing heat, con
stant walking,
chills, rain and
illness had
taken their toll.
Mexico’s Inte
rior Depart
ment says
nearly 3,000 of
the migrants
in the first
caravan have
applied for ref
uge in Mexico;
hundreds more
have returned home.
Honduran migrant Saul
Guzman, 48, spent the night
under a tin roof in the Oax
aca state town of Matias
Romero with his son Dan-
nys, 12, before setting out
for the town of Donaji, 30
miles north.
“I have been through a
lot,” said Guzman. “I want
to spend my time differ
ently, not in poverty.”
In his hometown of
Ocotepeque, Honduras, he
left behind a coffin, either
for his mother, who suf
fers dementia, “or for me,
if I don’t make it,” Guzman
said.
The migrants had already
made a grueling 40-mile
trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca,
on Thursday,
after they
failed to get
the bus trans
portation they
had hoped for.
But hitching
rides allowed
them to get to
Donaji early,
and some
headed to a
town even
further north,
Sayula.
The migrants have not
said what route they intend
to take, but any trek through
the Gulf coast state of Vera
cruz could take them toward
the Texas border. Another
large caravan early this
year passed through Vera
cruz but then veered back
toward Mexico City and
eventually tried to head to
Tijuana in the far northwest.
Few made it.
Immigration agents and
police have been nibbling
at the edges of the first two
caravans.
A federal official who was
not authorized to be quoted
by name said 153 migrants
in the second caravan were
detained Wednesday during
highway inspections in Chi
apas, a short distance from
the Guatemalan border.
There was also pres
sure on the first caravan.
Not only did the hoped-for
buses not arrive, but federal
police began pulling freight
trucks over and forcing
migrants off, saying their
habit of clinging to the tops
or sides of the trucks was
dangerous.
At other points along the
route, police have forced
overloaded pickups to drop
off migrants. On previous
days, they have ordered
passenger vans to stop help
ing with transportation.
President Donald Trump
has ordered U.S. troops
to the Mexican border in
response to the caravans of
migrants. More than 7,000
active duty troops have
been told to deploy to Texas,
Arizona and California.
‘I have been
through a
lot. I want to
spend my time
differently, not
in poverty.’
Saul Guzman
DIANA ULLOA I Associated Press
BINSAR BAKKARA I Associated Press
Shoes and debris retrieved from the waters near where
a Lion Air jet is believed to have crashed are laid out for
investigation at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia,
Friday, Nov. 2.
New details show
jet’s problems
before it crashed
BY NINIEK KARMINI AND STEPHEN WRIGHT
Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia — New details about the crashed
Lion Air jet’s previous flight cast more doubt on the Indo
nesian airline’s claim to have fixed technical problems, as
hundreds of personnel searched the sea for a fifth day Fri
day for victims and the plane’s fuselage.
The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the
Java Sea early Monday, just minutes after taking off from
the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing all 189 people on
board.
Herson, head of the Bali-Nusa Tenggara Airport Author
ity, said the pilot on the plane’s previous flight on Sunday
from Bali requested to return to the airport not long after
takeoff but then reported the problem had been resolved.
Several passengers have described the problem as a terrify
ing loss of altitude.
Lion Air, a budget carrier that is the biggest domestic
airline in Indonesia, has said the unspecified problem was
fixed after Sunday’s flight, but the fatal flight’s pilots also
made a “return to base” request not long after takeoff.
“Shortly after requesting RTB, the pilot then contacted
the control tower again to inform that the plane had run nor
mally and would not return” to Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport on
Sunday, Herson, who uses a single name, told The Associ
ated Press. “The captain said the problem was resolved and
he decided to continue the trip to Jakarta.”
Data from flight-tracking websites show both flights had
highly erratic speed and altitude after takeoff, though con
firmation is required from data recorded by the aircraft’s
“black box” flight recorders.
Indonesia’s Tempo news website published a minute-by-
minute summary of what it said were the conversations
between air traffic control and the pilots of Monday’s fatal
flight, who reported a “flight control problem” and were
unsure of their altitude. Asked about the accuracy of the
report, National Transportation Safety Committee deputy
head Haryo Satmiko said it had “similarities” with the infor
mation received “legally” by investigators.
Officials displayed one of the jet’s two flight recorders at
a news conference Thursday evening, later confirmed to be
the flight data recorder, and said they would immediately
attempt to download information and begin an analysis.
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