'We are hungry!" Migrants wail at Mexico-Guatemala border

A standoff between thousands of Central American migrants trying to reach the United States and Mexican police stretched through the night with some migrants hanging from the closed border gate wailing "there are children here" while others slept on the crowded bridge linking Guatemala to Mexico.

Members of the caravan of more than 3,000 migrants had earlier burst through a Guatemalan border fence and rushed onto the bridge over the Suchiate River, defying Mexican authorities' entreaties for an orderly crossing and U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of retaliation.

But they were met Friday by a wall of police with riot shields on the Mexican side of the bridge. About 50 managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray and the rest retreated, joining the sea of humanity on the bridge.

A child is carried over the border fence as thousands of Honduran migrants rush across the border towards Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Migrants broke down the gates at the border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. After arriving at the tall, yellow metal fence some clambered atop it and on U.S.-donated military jeeps. Young men began violently tugging on the barrier and finally succeeded in tearing it down. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

Police and immigration agents began letting small groups of 10, 20 or 30 people through the gates if they wanted to apply for refugee status. Once they file a claim, they can go to a shelter to spend the night.

As night fell on the bridge, the migrants' frustration turned to despair as women clutching small children took up the rows in front of the gate pleading with the Mexican federal police. Some migrants yelled "We are hungry!" Others wailed that they had children while others set up tarps to prepare for the night sleeping on the increasingly dirty and befouled bridge.

"Please, it is night. Let us pass," Alba Luz Giron Ramirez, a former shop employee and mother of three, pleaded to the officers.

Thousands of Honduran migrants rush across the border towards Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Migrants broke down the gates at the border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. After arriving at the tall, yellow metal fence some clambered atop it and on U.S.-donated military jeeps. Young men began violently tugging on the barrier and finally succeeded in tearing it down. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

Giron said they had come from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and that gangs had killed her brother and threatened her.

"We want them to give us permission to go to Mexico," her 5-year-old son Ramon said in a child's voice. "We wouldn't stay."

Alison Danisa wept as she knelt in the garbage already piling up on the bridge, clutching her naked 11-month-old infant to her breast.

Migrants tired of waiting to cross into Mexico, jumped from a border bridge into the Suchiate River, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Some of the migrants traveling in a mass caravan towards the U.S.-Mexico border organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

"We have suffered so much. She has a fever and we brought nothing," she said, showing the baby's bare bottom to indicate they had no diapers.

A Mexican marine official with a loudspeaker approached the gate and told migrants they would be taken in trucks to "a humanitarian attention center" in Tapachula, a border city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. But the official did not say when this would happen.

Late Friday night, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said in an address to the nation that a large group of migrants had "tried to enter Mexican territory irregularly, attacking and even hurting some elements of the Federal Police."

Migrants tired of waiting to cross into Mexico, climb a border bridge fence to jump into the Suchiate River, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Some of the migrants traveling in a mass caravan towards the U.S.-Mexico border organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

"Mexico does not permit and will not permit entry into its territory in an irregular fashion, much less in a violent fashion," he said.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez tweeted late Friday that he spoke with his Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, and asked permission to send Honduran civil protection personnel to the bridge to help the migrants.

"I also asked authorization to hire ground transportation for anyone who wants to return and an air bridge for special cases of women, children, the elderly and the sick," Hernandez tweeted.

Migrants tired of waiting to cross into Mexico, jumped from a border bridge fence into the Suchiate River, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Some of the migrants traveling in a mass caravan towards the U.S.-Mexico border organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

Hernandez and Morales are expected to meet in Guatemala early Saturday to discuss the situation.

Some migrants, tired of waiting, jumped off the bridge into the Suchiate River on Friday. Migrants organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters, and some floated across on rafts operated by local residents who usually charge a dollar or two to make the crossing.

Acner Adolfo Rodriguez, 30, one of the last migrants through the breached Guatemala border fence, said he hoped to find work and a better life far from the widespread poverty and gang violence in Honduras, one of the world's deadliest countries.

Thousands of Honduran migrants stream towards the border bridge in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, moments before the migrants broke down the gates at the Guatemala-Mexico border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. They were met by a phalanx of police with riot shields. About 50 managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray and the rest retreated. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

"May Trump's heart be touched so he lets us through," Rodriguez said.

The U.S. president has made it clear to Mexico that he is monitoring its response. On Thursday he threatened to close the U.S. border if Mexico didn't stop the caravan. Later that day he tweeted a video of Mexican federal police deploying at the Guatemalan border and wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

Mexican officials said those with passports and valid visas — only a tiny minority of those trying to cross — would be let in immediately.

Migrants rush to the aide of a man injured by a rock thrown by an unidentified person at the border bridge in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, as migrants broke down the gates at the Guatemala-Mexico border crossing. They were met by a phalanx of police with riot shields. About 50 managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray and the rest retreated. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

Migrants who want to apply for refuge in Mexico were welcome to do so, they said, but any who decide to cross illegally and are caught will be detained and deported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Friday with President Enrique Pena Nieto and Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray in Mexico City, with the caravan high on the agenda.

At a news conference with Videgaray, Pompeo called illegal migration a "crisis" and emphasized "the importance of stopping this flow before it reaches the U.S. border," while also acknowledging Mexico's right to handle the crisis in a sovereign fashion.

Central American migrants sit on the bridge over the Suchiate River that separates Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Central Americans traveling in a mass caravan broke through a Guatemalan border fence and streamed by the thousands toward Mexican territory, defying Mexican authorities' entreaties for an orderly migration and U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of retaliation. (AP PhotoMoises Castillo)

"Mexico will make its decision," Pompeo said. "Its leaders and its people will decide the best way to achieve what I believe are our shared objectives."

At Mexico City's airport before leaving, Pompeo said four Mexican federal police officers had been injured in the border standoff and expressed his sympathy.

On Thursday, Videgaray asked the U.N. for help processing what Mexico expects to be a large number of asylum requests.

Thousands of Honduran migrants stream towards the border bridge in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, moments before the migrants broke down the gates at the Guatemala-Mexico border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

Migrants have banded together to travel en masse regularly in recent years, but this caravan was unusual for its huge size, said Victor Clark Alfaro, a Latin American studies professor at San Diego State University. By comparison, a caravan in April that also attracted Trump's ire numbered about 1,000.

"It grabs one's attention that the number of people in these kinds of caravans is on the rise," Clark Alfaro said. "It is migration of a different dimension."

Elizabeth Oglesby, a professor at the University of Arizona's Center for Latin American Studies, said people join caravans like this because it's a way to make the journey in a relatively safe manner and avoid having to pay thousands of dollars to smugglers. She disputed Pompeo's assertion that that there is a "crisis" of migration.

Thousands of Honduran migrants stream towards the border bridge in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, moments before the migrants broke down the gates at the Guatemala-Mexico border crossing and began streaming toward a bridge into Mexico. (AP PhotoOliver de Ros)

"The border is not in crisis. This is not a migration crisis. ... Yes, we are seeing some spikes in Central Americans crossing the border, but overall migration is at a 40-year low," Oglesby said.

Speaking on the Televisa network, Videgaray did not seem concerned about Trump's threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it had to be viewed in light of the hotly contested U.S. midterm elections, in which Trump has made border security a major campaign issue.

Videgaray noted that 1 million people transit the border legally every day, and about $1 million in commerce crosses every minute.

"Before taking decisions of that kind," Videgaray said, "there would be many people in the United States ... who would consider the consequences."

Associated Press writers Peter Orsi, Christopher Sherman and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians reacted with a mixture of disappointment and defiance on Sunday after peace talks with the United States failed to reach an agreement following hourslong negotiations.

U.S. officials said the talks collapsed over what they described as Iran’s refusal to commit to abandoning its nuclear program. Iranian officials blamed the U.S. for failing to reach a deal, without specifying the sticking points.

The failure of the high-stakes talks in Pakistan after 21 hours casts doubt over the future of a fragile two-week ceasefire, due to expire on April 22.

While the fragile ceasefire seems to hold, the war is not over and uncertainty remains on the streets of Tehran where some residents were reluctant to speak to the media.

Iranians have been living in digital blackout for over a month after the internet was blocked shortly after the war started on Feb. 28. Since then, the population has been relying on state-controlled media, with a limited number of people having access to overseas satellite TV channels for access to information.

Standing outside a newsstand in the capital, Tehran, Farhad Simia told The Associated Press he had hoped for successful negotiations and an end to the fighting, but stood with Iran despite the failure of the talks.

“I’m against war. I think negotiation is the better path,” Simia, 43, said. He blamed “inappropriate demands” by the U.S. for the failure to reach a deal.

Mehdi Hosseini, also 43, agreed: “Considering the advantage Iran seemed to have on the battlefield, there was a real concern that we might lose all those gains in the negotiations.

“Whether the talks succeed or not is one matter, but the fact that the Iranian negotiating team managed to preserve what it achieved in the war, while refusing to back down and surrender, gives reason for hope.”

The streets of Tehran were lined up with large Iranian flags and giant billboards glorifying the country's leaders and military achievements. One large illustration depicted Iranian men in uniform lifting a fishing net out of the sea with a catch of miniature-sized U.S. military aircraft and warships. “The Strait Remains Closed,” the billboard read.

Hamid Haghi, 55, said “America's overreach” was the reason for the talks' failure. The U.S. wants “to come to the Strait of Hormuz, which is a legacy from our fathers,” he said. “We can oversee (it) ourselves.”

Like many Iranians, 60-year-old Mohammad Bagher believes Iran should continue to stand strong against the U.S. in what he sees as a war of their own making.

“We are a nation of dialogue and negotiation as long as our interests are respected. We have never sought war,” he said. “We will stand firm to the end, we are ready to sacrifice our lives, and will not give them one inch of our land.”

Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, it has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries.

Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.

A billboard of the U.S. Iran talks is seen near Serena Hotel, the venue for the U.S. Iran officials meeting, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

A worker cleans the street as police officers walks towards their vehicle outside a media center close to Serena Hotel, the venue for the U.S. Iran officials meeting, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)