There were marches in Tijuana yesterday both for and against the caravan from Central America

by Mexico News Daily

Residents of Tijuana are divided over the presence of large numbers of Central American migrants in their city.

Protests both for and against members of the first migrant caravan were held yesterday in the northern border city.

Around 500 people gathered in front of a statue of Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc that stands atop a Tijuana traffic circle and began an anti-migrant march towards a sports complex serving as a temporary shelter for about 2,500 Central Americans.

During the march, protesters demanded that the caravan members be sent back to their countries of origin.

“Out Hondurans, we don’t want you here” and “long live Mexico” were among the slogans chanted by the demonstrators as they waved Mexican flags and held up signs declaring “Basta de migración” (Migration, enough already) and “Primero nuestra gente” (Our people first).

Some protesters claimed that there are gang members, thieves and rapists mixed in with the migrants in the first caravan, whose members began arriving at the border city early last week.

“Their presence here makes me very afraid. I don’t know if something is going to happen to me or my neighbors . . . They could break into a business . . . or assault someone. That worries me,” Tijuana business owner María de Jesús told the newspaper Milenio.

Others said they are not against migration per se but rather the way in which many of the caravan members entered the country.

“They arrived and kicked down the door and that makes them criminals,” said Emilio Zúñiga, a Guanajuato native who has called Tijuana home for the past 20 years.
The marchers were stopped from reaching the entrance to the Benito Juárez sports center by a large contingent of municipal police sporting riot gear.

A standoff lasted for several hours, with protesters throwing water and beer cans at the officers before eventually dispersing.

Just one street away from where the anti-migrant march started, a smaller group of demonstrators held their own rally at which they denounced racism and discrimination and declared that the migrants are welcome in Tijuana and that their human rights must be respected.

Yesterday’s protests followed a week of heightened tension in Tijuana during which some residents made it clear that the migrants are not welcome.

Social media posts aimed at inciting violence against the Central Americans began appearing in anti-migrant groups on platforms such as Facebook virtually as soon as they arrived in the city.

Rumors circulating on the mobile messaging service WhatsApp that the migrants had looted stores, referred to Mexicans as “dogs” and even murdered someone only served to fuel the anti-migrant sentiment.

A confrontation occurred Wednesday night between an angry mob and migrants sleeping on the beach next to the border fence that separates Mexico from the United States.

Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum, who has been labeled Tijuana’s Trump, has also spoken out against the caravan, declaring that the migrants are not wanted.

United States President Trump yesterday seized on the mayor’s opposition to the migrants, writing on Twitter that “The Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, just stated that ‘the City is ill-prepared to handle this many migrants, the backlog could last 6 months.’”

In the same tweet, he added: “Likewise, the U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it. They are causing crime and big problems in Mexico. Go home!”

In a subsequent Twitter post, Trump wrote: “Illegal Immigrants trying to come into the U.S.A., often proudly flying the flag of their nation as they ask for U.S. Asylum, will be detained or turned away. Dems must approve Border Security & Wall NOW!”

The United States government has deployed 5,900 troops to the southern border to bolster security and barbed wire is also being affixed to the border fence to act as an additional deterrent to any attempts to scale it illegally.

With two other caravans currently traveling through Mexico, Tijuana officials have estimated that the number of migrants in the city could reach 10,000, stoking concerns about the city’s ability to cope with such a large cohort.

There are already around 3,000 migrants on a waiting list to apply for asylum in the United States, meaning that the new arrivals, and future ones, face a lengthy wait just to have the opportunity to plead their case.

But after traveling more than 4,000 kilometers to reach Mexico’s northern border, the vast majority are determined to do all they can to enter the United States, even if that means attempting to cross illegally.

“If I die on the way, at least I will have fought for something,” 24-year-old José Adan Núñez told The New York Times.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp).

Both have rejected the accusation, which claims that the Sinaloa Cartel paid them millions of dollars

by Mexico News Daily

A lawyer for former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán claimed yesterday that the Sinaloa Cartel paid huge bribes to the current Mexican president and his predecessor.

In his opening statement at the New York trial of the former capo, Jeffrey Lichtman said that the “real” Sinaloa Cartel leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, paid millions of dollars in bribes to President Peña Nieto and ex-president Felipe Calderón to avoid capture.

Zambada has been left free because he “bribes the entire government of Mexico including up to the very top, the current president of Mexico and the former,” Lichtman said.

Presidential spokesman Eduardo Sánchez and Calderón, who left office in 2012, quickly rejected the claim.

“The government of Enrique Peña Nieto pursued, captured and extradited the criminal Joaquín Guzmán Loera. The assertions attributed to his lawyer are completely false and defamatory,” Sánchez wrote on Twitter.

Lichtman’s assertions “are absolutely false and reckless,” Calderón tweeted. “Not him [Zambada] nor the Sinaloa Cartel or any other person made payments to me.”

On the first day of Guzmán’s trial for drug smuggling, conspiracy, firearms offenses and money laundering in a Brooklyn federal court, Lichtman told the judge and jury that Zambada is the real mastermind of the cartel and that Guzmán is no more than a “scapegoat” — a “nobody” with a second-grade education.

“He’s blamed for being the leader while the real leaders are living freely and openly in Mexico. In truth, he controlled nothing. Mayo Zambada did,” he said.

“The world is focusing on this mythical El Chapo creature,” Lichtman continued. “The world is not focusing on Mayo Zambada . . . Mayo can get people arrested and get the Mexican army and police to kill who he wants.”

The lawyer said that since El Chapo’s extradition to the United States in January last year, “the flow of drugs [to the U.S.] hasn’t stopped.”

Prior to Lichtman’s opening remarks, federal attorney Adam Fels presented the United States government’s case, asserting that prosecutors would prove that Guzmán rose from a small-time marijuana trafficker in the 1970s to chief of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Guzmán, 61, established relationships with Colombian cartels that allowed him to move massive amounts of cocaine into the United States, bringing him billions of dollars in profits, Fels told jurors.

Cocaine shipments seized by authorities add up to “more than a line of cocaine for every single person in the United States,” he said.

Fels also told jurors that Guzmán was responsible for turning parts of Mexico into war zones as he fought against rival cartels to expand the Sinaloa Cartel’s influence and power.

The jury will hear about how Guzmán personally shot two members of a rival cartel and ordered that their bodies be thrown into holes and burned, he added.

“He was a hands-on leader,” Fels said, referring to Guzmán’s involvement in day-to-day cartel activities.

All told, Guzmán faces 17 criminal charges and, if convicted, a possible life sentence. He appeared in court yesterday dressed in a dark suit and remained calm as he listened to proceedings with the aid of a translator.

The notorious drug lord, who has been held in solitary confinement in a Manhattan prison for almost two years, appeared almost happy and blew a kiss to his 29-year-old wife, Emma Coronel, who was sitting in the public gallery.

Prosecutors’ witnesses are expected to include former Sinaloa Cartel members and Guzmán associates including Zambada’s brother, Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, and son Vicente Zambada.

The latter, known by the nickname El Vicentillo, last week pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a United States federal court.

Vicente Zambada, a former logistics chief for the Sinaloa Cartel, said in a plea agreement that he will cooperate with prosecutors in the hope that in exchange he will receive a reduced sentence and protection for his family from cartel retribution.

Lichtman, an experienced criminal lawyer who previously defended New York mobster John A. Gotti, attacked the credibility of the potential witnesses.
“Why is the government going so far in this case using these gutter human beings as the evidence?” he asked.

“It’s because the conviction of Chapo Guzman is the biggest prize this prosecution could ever dream of.”

Lichtman also urged the jury “to keep an open mind” and consider that law enforcement authorities in both Mexico and the United States could be corrupt.

“They work together when it suits them, Mayo [Zambada] and the United States government,” he said.

Almost immediately after Lichtman’s opening remarks, Judge Brian M. Cogan excused the jury and cautioned the lawyer against making statements that might not be supported by evidence.

The trial is being held under extraordinarily tight security. Jurors are escorted to and from the court by armed federal marshals.

Guzmán, who twice escaped from prison in Mexico, has been accompanied by heavily armed federal officials and New York police on his journeys from his cell to the federal court.

The trial, which is expected to last between two and four months, continues today.

Source: AFP (sp), Reuters (sp), El Financiero (sp).

A first contingent has already arrived in Tijuana, where authorities are seeking aid for shelters

by Mexico News Daily

Central American migrants are now traveling through at least 12 Mexican states en route to the United States, according to authorities.

Members of the first migrant caravan began to split into smaller groups after leaving Mexico City over the weekend as they travel towards the Mexico-United States border at Tijuana.

One group, made up of around 80 women, children and members of the LGBT community, arrived in Tijuana on Monday, according to José García, who works at a migrant shelter in the northern border city.

Nine buses carrying about 350 more migrants reached Tijuana early today. A Honduran flag was seen fluttering outside a bus window.

Other members of the caravan have splintered off in different directions to reach other northern cities including Hermosillo, Sonora; Escuinapa, Sinaloa; and Monterrey, Nuevo León.

Authorities in Nayarit are continuing to provide buses to transport migrants to the state’s border with Sinaloa.

That leg of the journey is likely to come today or tomorrow for the largest contingent of the first caravan, located farther south in the country.

Most members of the group arrived in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on Monday and stayed last night in an auditorium in the neighboring municipality of Zapopan.

However, some migrants stayed in the city of La Piedad, Michoacán, around 160 kilometers southeast of Guadalajara.

Early Monday morning, a huge contingent of migrants arrived at the entry to the Irapuato-Guadalajara highway to try to hitch rides to the Jalisco capital.

Two hours after their 5:00am arrival, some 500 migrants had managed to clamber on to passing trucks but a much larger number was still waiting for rides, the newspaper Milenio reported.

One 65-year-old man identified only as Luis Enrique climbed onto a tank truck only to be ordered by Federal Police to get off.

“I know it’s dangerous to travel this way but when one is poor there is no other choice,” he told Milenio as he waited for another ride.

A 32-year-old Guatemalan man who suffered first-degree burns to his face and chest while juggling fire torches to earn money at traffic lights in Irapuato was also among the migrants traveling towards Guadalajara yesterday.

One truck driver said that it was impossible to stop the migrants from boarding.

“. . . They climb on themselves, there’s no way of telling them no and getting them off . . .” he said.

Those who reached Guadalajara yesterday endured a five-hour journey exposed to the sun, strong wind and the constant risk of falling from the fast-moving and often-overcrowded trailers.

Members of the second caravan, made up of more than 1,000 migrants, began arriving in Mexico City yesterday from Puebla.

The third caravan, made up of around 450 Salvadoran migrants who entered Mexico legally, remain in Tapachula, Chiapas, awaiting immigration documents.

Meanwhile, a fourth caravan that crossed the southern border earlier this month is currently traveling through Veracruz en route to Puebla and Mexico City.

The Federal Interior Secretariat (Segob) announced yesterday that it has agreed to a proposal by the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) to offer employment opportunities to Central American migrants in several Mexican states on the condition that they formally register with immigration authorities.

President Peña Nieto announced a program last month called “Estás en tu Casa” (You are at home), offering shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to the migrants on the condition that they formally apply for refugee status with the National Immigration Institute (INM) and remain in Chiapas or Oaxaca.

However, most migrants rejected the offer and remain determined to reach the United States’ southern border, where they intend to apply for asylum.

In Tijuana, where most members of the first caravan are headed, migrant advocates warned that shelters in the city are already 75 percent full.

According to a report in the newspaper Reforma, there are 2,800 migrants — including Central Americans, Africans and Mexicans — who have been in Tijuana for up to a month waiting for the opportunity to lodge requests for asylum in the United States.

Baja California Interior Secretary Francisco Rueda said that state authorities are requesting 80 million pesos (US $3.9 million) from the federal government to pay for shelter, food, health care and humanitarian assistance while caravan members are in Tijuana.

While migrants have stayed in other Mexican cities for short periods, they could be in Tijuana for weeks or even months as they await the opportunity to request asylum.

“Other cities have welcomed them for two or three days, but one can foresee that a good number of them will stay in Tijuana for a long period . . .” the city’s Catholic archdiocese said in a statement Friday.

Some migrants are likely to be transferred to the state capital of Mexicali, located about 200 kilometers east of Tijuana, where shelters have capacity for 500 caravan members.

Rueda said that state and municipal authorities want the federal government to petition United States authorities to speed up the process to seek asylum.

However, United States President Trump is seeking to make it more difficult for caravan members to enter the country.

Trump has described the first caravan as an “invasion” and said that as many as 15,000 troops could be deployed to the U.S. southern border to meet the migrants.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp), Expansión (sp), The San Diego Union Tribune (en).