MAPASTEPEC, Mexico (AP) — The Latest on the caravan of Central American migrants hoping to travel through Mexico to the U.S. (all times local):
7:35 a.m.
The sprawling caravan of migrants hoping to make their way to the United States has set off again, forming a column more than a mile long as the group treks out of the town of Mapastepec in southern Mexico before dawn.
Most had spent the rainy night on the town square where the municipality of some 45,000 people joined churches and volunteers in setting up portable tents offering some medicines and donated baby bottles, clothing and showers.
The caravan swelled dramatically soon after crossing the border on Oct. 19, but little by little, sickness, fear and police harassment are whittling down the numbers. Many of the 4,000 to 5,000 migrants camped overnight under plastic sheeting complained of exhaustion.
Since entering Mexico at its southernmost tip, the group has advanced roughly 95 miles (150 kilometers) as the crow flies — a sliver of the more than 1,000 miles to the U.S. border. The next planned stop is Pijijiapan, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) up the road.
