On October 23, between two and three thousand migrants left Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas near the Guatemalan border, on foot for Mexico City, shouting “Freedom. Liberty.” They are mainly Central American, but also from many other countries. They demand shelter that allows them to legally live, work and circulate in Mexico, while many seek to reach the United States and reunite with relatives there.

A few kilometers away, the National Guard activated its first operation to disrupt this massive flight from the Tapachula area, designed to “contain” the migrants (an agreement imposed by the United States and assumed by the Mexican government). This first attempt failed. Young migrants faced off against shields and clubs of the government forces and did not allow anyone to be taken away. These militarized policemen had to retreat, due to the large number and collective organization of the migrants, as well as the strong presence of the press of all kinds.

While the government forces withdrew temporarily to apply the strategy of tiring them out and then repress them, the caravan advanced along the coast, uniting more migrants. In six days there were already five thousand on the way to the state of Oaxaca.

That same week in Tapachula and Suchiate, in Chiapas, two Haitian women were found dead. One was raped, strangled and thrown naked along a rural road and the other was found dead on the bank of the Suchiate River, bordering Guatemala. Several sources reported that the first woman had been detained hours earlier by the Suchiate municipal police, whose officials vanished just after her murder was reported.

National Guard Murders a Cuban Migrant

On October 31, members of the National Guard (GN) murdered in cold blood a Cuban migrant named Cristóbal and injured two or three more people, when they opened fire on 13 migrants aboard a van near Pijijiapan, Chiapas. They were all from the caravan, citizens of Cuba, Ghana and Brazil. First, the GN lied by saying that the truck was attacking them, but then they only asserted their “right” to execute unarmed people who “eluded” their attempt to stop them. Mexican president López Obrador [AMLO], concerned about reducing the political cost and distancing himself from the crime, demanded that the culprits be brought before the Public Prosecutor. But it must be obvious that there will be no justice for the victims or serious reprisals against those who the president himself has commissioned to “contain the migrants.” This crime illustrates that, despite the change in rhetoric and some economic policies in the current administration, the government continues to be a repressive apparatus at the service of the prevailing capitalist system.

Attacks with Carrot and Club

President AMLO also declared that there are better ways to retain the migrants, and the National Migration Institute (INM) stepped up its efforts to convince migrants to accept its “offer” of a Visiting Card for Humanitarian Reasons (TVRH) for children, pregnant women and their families in exchange for leaving the caravan. This “carrot” is not a favor; by law , it is an obligation to give them the TVRH, the same card that they were purposely denied for months in Tapachula, and it was also not valid for leaving Tapachula. This card is only a temporary permit for six or 12 months and the INM has refused to renew it throughout Mexico since 2019. To top it all, the INM does not respect it but rather detains people with this card, they tear it up and they are deported to their country of origin or expelled to Guatemala. The TVRH “offer” has no other purpose than to try to divide and dissolve the caravan. They accuse the leaders of the caravan of not allowing the migrants to accept this visa and of deceiving them and exposing them to dangers that can cost them their lives, when the very INM and the GN are the ones who deceive, repress, deport, and kill the migrants.

On November 4, the National Guard used the “club” again when attacking the people who were at the back end of the caravan. They tear gassed, detained and beat children and women, including a woman in a wheelchair. 100 or 150 migrants came to the rescue, repelling the GN with fury due to all the violence, insults and injustices they suffer at the hands of the GN. They left two agents injured, and the migrants themselves carried them and handed them over to their cronies to be treated. Luis García Villagrán, one of the leaders of the caravan informed Reuters, “There are two injured migrants, they were badly beaten. The agents tried to kettle them in with their shields. They took at least four trucks with people from the caravan who had been at the end of the marchers.” Around 80 migrants were detained. In a statement, the National Guard gave its version that five of its members had “considerable” injuries, adding with world-class hypocrisy, “It should be noted that the agents of the institution at no time responded to the aggression. The National Guard rejects all forms of violence as a means to achieve any personal or group objective.” This was after shooting a migrant to death, seriously injuring several more and violently harassing the entire caravan!

The GN and the INM initiated the violence and their violence was more cruel and widespread than that of the migrants. In any case, it is important to distinguish between just violence and unjust violence. Government forces use violence to oppress and dehumanize their victims at the service of a system that does not allow migrants to survive and causes unnecessary suffering for the vast majority of people. Instead, it is just and necessary when people who are persecuted rise up against this violence to defend themselves and even more make a revolution that will overthrow this system and create a much better world.

The government continues to increase its political and psychological offensive. On November 5, the Secretariat of the Interior released a false statement that demonized the two leaders of the caravan with statements such as, “They lie by accusing that the INM has repressed those who make up the caravan, when the Beta Groups [government agency that gives medical and other aid to migrants] accompany and help them,” and “They lie when they point out that they do not comply with the delivery of cards to refugee applicants, and as proof the Nicaraguan journalist, Carlos Fernando Padilla, who covered the journey of the caravan and received the Permanent Resident Card from the INM...” In fact, after receiving the residency, this journalist denounced that the INM demanded that he convince others to accept the TVRH and leave the caravan. He refused to do so, but the INM and its Grupo Beta trick other migrants for this purpose and exaggerate how many migrants have surrendered.

The caravan is now on its way in Veracruz with the new objective of reaching Sonora and they announced the departure of another caravan from Tapachula on November 18, with the plan to unite along the way.

It is not only in Mexico and the United States that migrants clash with the police and military forces of the imperialist capitalist system. On the border of Belarus and Poland they are killing Kurdish, Syrian and Afghan migrants; African migrants drown in the Mediterranean Sea or are persecuted or expelled from Spain, Greece, Italy and other European countries. Capitalism-imperialism, furthermore, is destroying the environment and with it the livelihood, especially, of people in the oppressed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Also, to maintain profitability, it depends on superexploiting oppressed migrants within the imperialist countries themselves, as well as workers in oppressed countries. The very expansion of capitalism in the oppressed countries causes more and more destruction and dislocation, reactionary wars and criminal gangs, all of which expel people and force them to migrate, while the “rich” countries do not allow them to enter and incite fascist anti-immigrant xenophobia.

This obsolete and dying system can be overthrown by communist revolutions in different countries to create new socialist societies where no person will be “illegal.” Every migrant who wants to contribute to this revolution, whose goal is to eliminate all forms of oppression and exploitation in the entire world, will be welcomed and will find a home. There will be enough work and means of living for all in a society where capitalist competition for maximum profit no longer governs the economy, nor does the state govern in the interests of a small group of exploiters, but it will be governed by the fundamental interests of those who are now exploited and oppressed to put an end to all forms of exploitation and oppression.

For this reason,
Support the migrants,
Denounce the forces of the state,
Organize now for a real revolution that will put an end to this murderous system!

Download the flyer in Spanish in PDF: Apoyar a los migrantes.pdf 

Aurora Roja
Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico