Honduran Migrants Maimed On Way To US Say They Seek Meeting With Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto

A group of 15 Hondurans who were maimed or seriously injured in accidents as they hitchhiked atop cargo trains through Mexico on their way to the United States are asking for an audience with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Vanguardia reports. The migrants say they want to speak first-hand with the president about the dangers which undocumented migrants crossing Mexico often face and show him the wounds they sustained on their journey.

The men have been waiting since March 25 in the Mexican city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, for the government to grant them a humanitarian visa which would allow them to pass legally through Mexico. Now, they plan to make the journey to Mexico City without the proper authorization. José Luis Hernández, a group member who is also president of the Disabled Returned Migrant Association (AMIREDIS), which represents 450 Hondurans, told La Jornada that after more than a week of waiting in vain for a response from Mexican immigration authorities, he and the rest of the group would keep going after a protest held in the streets of Tapachula.

“And why is it impossible for Peña Nieto to receive us?” he said during an interview with Animal Politico. “I tell my fellow migrants that what’s really impossible is for me to grow back the hand which La Bestia took away, or the leg I lost, or the three fingers missing on my other hand. But to see and talk with another human being who’s the same as all of us…why is that impossible?”