After 23 days of harsh travel through pouring rain and tropical heat Suyapa takes a much-needed break at a sprawling shelter for members of the Central American migrant and refugee caravan in a sports complex in Mexico’s capital.
“It’s been really heavy going, especially for them,” she says, pointing to her two youngest sons, aged 7 and 10. “One of them got sick but thank God he’s better now. We’ve walked a lot. They get exhausted, they’ve lost the skin on their feet and had to walk barefoot at times.”
Like many of the thousands of people traveling in a series of caravans from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, Suyapa left home out of necessity rather than choice.
While President Trump has called the caravan members “criminals” and deployed over 5,000 soldiers to prevent them from crossing the United States-Mexico border, a great many of them are women and children simply searching for a safe place to rebuild their lives.
Text by Louise Tillotson and Duncan Tucker of Amnesty International.
Full article in The Lilly.
