Bill Weir on Migrant Caravans in Mexico

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I’m wondering why this is suddenly happening right now. We’ve seen periodically over the months and years that there are these long marches out of, as you describe it, poverty and violence and corruption at home. And what has triggered the latest one? And honestly, we’re seeing desperate pictures even on the Mexico/Guatemala border of people hurling themselves off bridges, trying to get on anything that floats to take them on to Mexican territory.

WEIR: Yes. We were on the bridge when the Mexican Federales tried to stop the flow. Didn’t work very well. People jumped from the bridge, swam or rafted across there as well. The best I can gather is, really the initial spark of this caravan came out of the political climate that’s happening in Honduras. As the audience might recall, very contested election. Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president, was re-elected in what internal election watchers say was very suspicious terms. There was a week’s long recount. During that recount, President Trump congratulated him, promised him foreign aid as well. And then once in power, he’s taken on more of a strong man stance down there, appointing a lot of his cronies into the judgeships who then drop charges against people accused of embezzling massive amounts of that country’s wealth.

They say 22 protesters were killed according to human rights watchers down there. So, that plus the cartel violence sparked the initial caravan to come out and then it just gathered steam, as people see this as an opportunity to find strength in numbers and comfort as they head north, as they support each other, people from different countries are now sort of this brotherhood of the caravan as they move north again, most of them oblivious to how it’s playing in the country of their destination.

AMANPOUR: Bill, I’m really curious though to know they may be oblivious how it’s playing politically but they must have seen over the last months, you know, these awful scenes at the U.S.-Mexico border when families were separated. I mean, the last big crisis was that one. And I wonder, don’t they think that might happen to them? And you’ve been reporting that so many kids are on their way as well.

WEIR: Yes, I’ve said again and again, “Do you understand what’s happening in the United States? Have you heard about family separations? Have you heard about President Trump’s threats to use soldiers to turn you away?” And all of their answers sort of harken back to an amazing poem by a Somali-English poet, Warsan Shire, who wrote, “You only leave home when home is the mouth of a shark. You only run for the border when you see your whole town running ahead of you. You only put your kid in a boat when you think the water is safer than the land.” They say, “We’ll take that choice, that uncertainty, that 5,000-kilometer hike up the length of Mexico with all the perils that go along with that.” They’ll choose that path rather than stay at home.