by Allan Wall, US Incorporated, ©2022
(Jun. 9, 2022) — On June 6, 2022, the Washington Examiner reported that a new caravan departed from Tapachula, a Mexican city near the Guatemalan border, with the goal of marching across Mexico and entering the United States.
Estimates put the group’s size at between 6,000-11,000 people, and it’s expected to grow to 15,000. If true, that would make it the biggest caravan yet.
The caravan’s organizer is 35-year old Colombian Luis Garcia Villagran, and the majority of the marchers are from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Why now?
Because of the Summit of the Americas, a meeting of leaders and representatives of various countries in the Western Hemisphere being held this week in Los Angeles.
Quoth Caravan Organizer Villagran: “These are countries collapsing from poverty and violence. We strongly urge those who attend the summit … to look at what is happening, and what could happen even more often in Mexico, if something is not done soon.”
The plan is to march to the U.S. border and enter Texas.
There have been plenty of problems at the Texas-Mexico border, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott is attempting to get control of it with Operation Lone Star.
What can we expect when they arrive at the border? What will be the federal response? What will be Governor Abbott’s response?
Regarding the aforementioned city of Tapachula, Mexico, I reported in a previous blog entry published on March 23rd about a riot in Tapachula in which 200-300 non-Mexican migrants broke into a government immigration processing station.
In that article, I quoted from Mexico’s Excelsior, which reported, “Apparently, the migrants were egged on outside the offices of the bureaucracy by two supposed defenders of human rights from Nicaragua, Ignacio Rocha and Rosa Castillo, whose organization is called ‘Miel y Canela Foundation’…”
Later, I received an email from Jeannette Matta, founder and CEO of Miel y Canela, who says she had nothing to do with what happened in Tapachula, and that the aforementioned Rosa Castillo and Nacho Rocha have now formed a new organization called White Rose Human Rights Foundation.
I continued to correspond with Jeannette, and eventually we had a conversation by phone.
The Miel and Canela Foundation is based in Tampa, Florida.
On the website, the group’s mission is described as “implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in communities and schools actively forwarding the knowledge and protection of human rights by and for all Mankind.”
Its purpose is described as providing “support to enhance the quality of life to the voiceless in our community through individual and family counseling and services, and through its partnerships create opportunities for independence and sustainability.”
I also note on the website’s front page that the organization is “FIGHTING TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING.”
That’s certainly a worthy fight, as human trafficking is a serious problem.
The organization held an anti-trafficking walk-a-thon in Tampa this past February.
When we talked on the phone, Jeannette Matta spoke of the activists Rosa Castillo (Nicaraguan) and Nacho Rocha (Spaniard), who were mentioned in the Excelsior article as having apparently stirring up the riot in Tapachula.
Previously, these two activists were in Tampa. Jeannette told me that they informed her they were going to Tapachula, Mexico. But Jeannette didn’t want to get involved, refused to accompany them, and remained in Tampa.
Castillo and Rocha went to Tapachula, and as Excelsior reported, there was a riot.
These are complicated issues. Mass migration is a continental phenomenon. There are migrants coming from various countries in Latin America and passing through Mexico to get to the United States.
In fact, it’s more than continental, it’s a global phenomenon. There are now migrants from Europe, Africa and Asia passing through to arrive to the U.S.
It’s not just about our border – many borders are being crossed.
Personally, I believe that this is not the way to solve problems in other countries. If we want to help poor people in other countries, we should help them there, where our dollars go further.
Encouraging millions to migrate causes many problems for all our societies, and puts the migrants themselves in danger.
Once again, thanks to Jeannette Matta of the Miel and Canela Foundation for sharing her perspective.
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