TAPACHULA –  A new caravan of migrants began walking from southern Mexico on Thursday toward the US border, starting out from the city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala.

The majority of the migrants are from Venezuela, but they also include people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru and Ecuador. They’ve said they are tired of being blocked from crossing Mexico by the government.

Though previous caravans have said they intend to reach the border – something that was almost never achieved – the migrants in the new caravan appear to be less clear about where they were headed. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to prevent migrants from entering the United States, and stage mass deportations of those already in the country. Many of the migrants said they were simply tired of being bottled up in Tapachula – a city tired of hosting thousands of migrants and one where they cannot find much work.

Giscarlis Colmenares, a 29-year-old from Venezuela, has been waiting for almost three months for an asylum appointment through the US CBP One app. Colmenares said her immediate goal was to reach Mexico City to find “work, so that we see whether we can get ahead, or stay here and earn enough money to return to Venezuela”.

Some recognised the difficulties involved in reaching the US. Douglas Ernesto, from El Salvador, trudged along with the caravan on Thursday, with his wife and 10-year-old son. “Our goal is the United States but, if not, we’ll stay in Mexico,” Ernesto said, acknowledging “that getting beyond Tapachula is very difficult”.  The caravan has little or no chance of making it more than a few dozen miles. In November, Mexican officials broke up two similar migrant caravans not far from Tapachula. (Jamaica-gleaner)