MEXICO CITY – More migrants crossed into Mexico last month, led by a sharp increase from Venezuela but also significant numbers from Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico’s top diplomat told lawmakers on Tuesday.
In testimony to Mexican senators, Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said that in the month of September alone, 60,000 Venezuelan migrants, 35,000 Guatemalan migrants and 27,000 Honduran migrants arrived in Mexico.
The September data comes ahead of Sunday’s migration summit in the southern Mexican town of Palenque hosted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador where regional leaders will discuss rising U.S.-bound migration in Latin America.
Among the leaders who have confirmed their attendance are Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
After U.S. authorities authorized in May more legal pathways to enter the United States, the numbers of migrants crossing Mexican territory fell abruptly. But the numbers have again shot up in recent weeks.
Barcena also noted that some 1.13 million migrants have so far this year reached Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, and that 1.75 million had reached the U.S.-Mexico border.
She added that about 63,000 migrant children had arrived in Mexico since August, about 7% of them unaccompanied while nearly three-quarters were 11 years old or younger.