Mexican authorities dissolved two migrant caravans en route to the United States, days after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to levy a 25 percent tariff on imports from the country unless Mexico blocked migrants headed to the U.S. border.
The breaking-up of the two caravans appeared to be part of “an agreement between the president of Mexico and the president of the United States,” migrant rights activist Luis Garcia Villagran said.
The first of the caravans started from Tapachula, Mexico, on Nov. 5, the day Trump was elected. In Tehuantepec, Mexican immigration officials offered the migrants free bus rides to other cities in southern or central Mexico, members of the caravan and activists said. The second caravan of about 1,500 migrants set out on Nov. 20 and made it about 140 miles to the town of Tonala, in Chiapas state, activists say. There, authorities offered a sort of transit visa that allows travel across Mexico for 20 days.