Caravan heads to Mexico City; basilica opens its pilgrim shelter to migrants

From CNS: 

The caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico has started arriving in Mexico City, where the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the world’s most-visited Marian shrine, has opened its shelter for pilgrims to weary Central American migrants.

At least 1,000 migrants departed Nov. 5 from Cordoba, 190 miles southeast of Mexico City, hoping to make a final push to the national capital. They were joined by another group departing from Puebla – closer to Mexico City – where they had received assistance and slept in parishes.

One caravan set out Oct. 12 from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and mushroomed in size as it moved northward. Its participants have pushed through borders and past police blockades, slept on sidewalks and in town squares and suffered illnesses and injuries brought on by long walks in hot and inclement weather.

Catholics working on the immigration issue in Central America say caravans have become a preferred form of traveling through Mexico, where crimes are commonly committed against migrants traveling solo or in small groups. Caravans, they say, offer security in numbers and make it unnecessary to pay high fees to human smugglers.

In interviews in southern Mexico, most of the migrants said they were fleeing a combination of violence, poverty and an inability to make ends meet in the northern triangle of Central America: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, three of the poorest and most violent countries in the hemisphere.

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