The migrants had stopped for the day at a shaded crossroads when hundreds of national guard troops advanced their lines to within yards meters of the migrants. National guardsmen in riot gear advanced banging their plastic shields with batons and engaged the migrants.
There was shoving and pepper spray as migrants were rounded up. Many of the people allowed themselves to be escorted to 20 waiting buses without resistance. Others resisted and were subdued by guardsmen. A paramedic attended to an injured woman lying on the highway shoulder. The road was left littered with water bottles, plastic bags and clothing.
It was a sudden climax after the day had seemed to be winding down. Carrying U. Jose Luis Morales, a Salvadoran de facto spokesman for the caravan, said the migrants wanted to negotiate to be allowed to pass peacefully. The migrants halted late in the morning on the roadside about 6 miles 10 kilometers north of the river border city of Ciudad Hidalgo, and a few miles kilometers from where a large deployment of security forces was waiting. Federal officials arrived and began negotiating with Morales.
Mexico has cracked down on the large caravans seen previously following intense pressure from Washington last year. He and others rested in the shade of a tree Thursday morning after walking for hours along the highway.
He was determined to get to the U. The migrants awoke with a plan Thursday. By a. They would not cross where Mexican authorities were posted across the river. They prayed for about an hour before leaving and then walked upriver on the Guatemala side in the dark to near another bridge that handles commercial traffic between the two countries. There were no Mexican authorities on the opposite bank. There the water was deeper, coming to the waist of a grown man, so a number of young men entered the river first and formed a human chain to keep the women and children who followed from being pulled by the current.
