TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 2,000 migrants began walking Monday in southern Mexico in what has become a traditional demonstration during Holy Week before Easter to draw attention to their plight.
Leaving Tapachula near the Guatemalan border at dawn, the migrants and their advocates said their goal was to reach Mexico’s capital and highlight the dangers they face including robberies, sexual assaults, extortion and kidnapping.
Mexico has practiced a containment strategy in recent years that aims to keep migrants in southern Mexico far from the U.S. border. Migrants can languish there for months trying to regularize their status through asylum or other means. Migrants say there is little work available, and most carry large debts to smugglers.
The procession included a large white cross painted with the words “Christ resurrected” in Spanish. The day before the march, there was a stations of the cross procession — a time for pilgrimage and reflection — across the river that divides Guatemala and Mexico.
Guatemalan Daniel Godoy joined the walk on Monday with his wife and two children after waiting in Tapachula for four months to regularize their status.
[
A migrant pushes a baby stroller past National Guards in Tapachula in Mexico's Chiapas state, Monday, March 25, 2024. Migrants stranded on the border with Guatemala departed on Monday for Mexico City in what they are calling "The Migrant Way of the Cross" during Holy Week to call for better migratory policies. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
]
“There’s still no date for the card, for the permit,” he said as they walked down a rural highway. “We decided it’s better to come on our own.”
He carried his 2-year-old daughter on his shoulders and his wife carried their 6-month-old baby.
Rev. Heyman Vázquez Medina, a member of the Catholic Church’s human mobility effort, said Mexico’s immigration policy lacked clarity. He noted that the government dragged its feet in granting legal status to cross the country and kept migrants off public transportation, but let them make the exhausting trek up highways.
“They have to walk under the sun and the rain, kilometers and kilometers, suffering from hunger? Who can take that?” Vázquez said.
Mexico’s government has been under pressure from the Biden administration to control the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.
The U.S. Border Patrol encountered migrants 140,644 times in February, according to data released Friday. That was up from 124,220 in January but well below the nearly 250,000 encounters in December.
Migrants walking on the highway carry a cross that reads in Spanish "Christ Resurrected" during Holy Week as they move through Tapachula in Mexico's Chiapas state, Monday, March 25, 2024. Migrants stranded on the border with Guatemala departed on Monday for Mexico City in what they are calling "The Migrant Way of the Cross" to call for better migratory policies. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East.
For Iran's Shiite theocracy, mass demonstrations have been crucial since millions thronged the streets of Tehran to welcome Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution, and also attended his funeral 10 years later. An estimated 1 million turned out in 2020 for processions for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.
Whether President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others draw the same crowd remains in question, particularly as Raisi died in a helicopter crash, won his office in the lowest-turnout presidential election in the country's history and presided over sweeping crackdowns on all dissent. Prosecutors already have warned people over showing any public signs of celebrating his death and a heavy security force presence has been seen on the streets of Tehran since the crash.
But Raisi, 63, had been discussed as a possible successor for Iran's supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His death now throws that selection into question, particularly as there is no heir-apparent cleric for the presidency ahead of planned June 28 elections.
“Raisi’s death comes at a moment when the Islamist regime is consolidated,” wrote Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute. “In short, there will be no power vacuum in Tehran; nonetheless, post-Khamenei Iran suddenly looks far less predictable than it did just a few days ago.”
A procession Tuesday morning led by a semitruck carrying the caskets of the dead slowly moved through the narrow streets of downtown Tabriz, the closest major city near the site of the crash Sunday. Thousands in black slowly walked beside the coffins, some throwing flowers up to them as an emcee wept through a loudspeaker for men he described as martyrs. On Wednesday, a funeral presided over by Khamenei will turn into a procession as well.
The caskets later arrived in Tehran to an honor guard at the airport and then went onward to the holy Shiite seminary city of Qom. There, a semitruck surrounded by soldiers in fatigues at one point was swarmed by a crowd of mourners. Some beat their chests and wailed. The truck later picked up speed while others stood alongside the road, watching.
The bodies will return to Tehran on Tuesday night for services Wednesday.
It remains unclear what international presence that funeral will draw, as Raisi faced U.S. sanctions for his part in mass executions in 1988 and for abuses targeting protesters and dissidents while leading the country's judiciary. Iran under Raisi also shipped bomb-carrying drones to Russia to be used in its war on Ukraine.
“I don’t feel comfortable sending condolences while Iran is sending drones that are used against civilians in Ukraine,” wrote Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on the social platform X.
United Kingdom Security Minister Tom Tugendhat echoed that in his own message on X: “President Raisi’s regime has murdered thousands at home, and targeted people here in Britain and across Europe. I will not mourn him.”
On Thursday, Raisi's hometown of Birjand will see a procession, followed by a funeral and burial at the Imam Reza shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, the only imam of the Shiite's faith buried in Iran.
That shrine has long been a center for pilgrims and sees millions visit each year. Over the centuries, its grounds have served as the final burial site for heroes in Persian history. It's an incredibly high, rare honor in the faith. Iranian President Mohammad-Ali Rajai, the only other president to die in office when he was killed in a 1981 bombing, was buried in Tehran.
Iran's theocracy declared five days of mourning, encouraging people to attend the public mourning sessions. Typically, government employees and schoolchildren attend such events en masse, while others take part out of patriotism, curiosity or to witness historic events.
Across Iran, its rural population often more closely embraces the Shiite faith and the government. However, Tehran has long held a far different view of Raisi and his government's policies as mass protests have roiled the capital for years.
The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman detained over her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab. The monthslong security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death. Meanwhile, Iran's rial currency has cratered after the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, destroying people's savings and pensions.
On Sunday night, as news of the helicopter crash circulated, some offered anti-government chants in the night. Fireworks could be seen in some parts of the capital, though Sunday also marked a remembrance for Imam Reza, which can see them set off as well. Critical messages and dark jokes over the crash also circulated online.
Iran's top prosecutor has already issued an order demanding cases be filed against those “publishing false content, lies and insults” against Raisi and others killed in the crash, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency.
No cause has yet been offered by Iran's government for the crash, which took place in a foggy mountain range in a decades-old helicopter. Iranian presidents including hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Abolhasan Banisadr both survived their own helicopter crashes while in office.
Iran's military, not its civil aviation authority, will investigate and later offer a report, authorities say. Iran's civil air crash investigators faced widespread international criticism over their reports on the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an air defense battery in 2020 after Soleimani's killing.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Iran’s new Assembly of Experts opened its first session after an election that decided the new assembly, a panel of which both Raisi and the late Tabriz Friday leader Mohammad Ali Ale-Heshem were members. A flower-ringed portrait sat on the seat Raisi would have occupied at the meeting of the 88-member panel, which is tasked with selecting the country's next supreme leader. Also attending was Iran's acting President Mohammad Mokhber.
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, mourners gather around a truck carrying the flag-draped coffins of President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, in their funeral ceremony in the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, a cleric kisses the flag-draped coffin of President Ebrahim Raisi during a funeral ceremony for him and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, in the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, Revolutionary Guard members carry the flag-draped coffin of President Ebrahim Raisi during a funeral ceremony for him and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, in the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, a woman mourns as she holds a poster of President Ebrahim Raisi in a funeral ceremony for him and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, in the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. The sign in the poster reads in Farsi: "Martyr President" (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners try to touch the coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, top, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, left, and Raisi's chief bodyguard Gen. Mehdi Mousavi, who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners try to touch the coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, top, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, left, and Raisi's chief bodyguard Gen. Mehdi Mousavi, who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners carry the flag-draped coffin of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who was killed in a helicopter crash along with President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners carry the flag-draped coffin of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who was killed in a helicopter crash along with President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners gather around a truck carrying coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions who were killed in their helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners gather around a truck carrying coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions who were killed in their helicopter crash on Sunday in mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners gather around a truck carrying coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions who were killed in their helicopter crash on Sunday in mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi/Fars News Agency via AP)
In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, mourners gather around a truck carrying coffins of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in a mountainous region of the country's northwest, during a funeral ceremony at the city of Tabriz, Iran, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honoring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. (Ata Dadashi, Fars News Agency via AP)
People hold up posters of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a mourning ceremony for him at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024. President Raisi and the country's foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Women attend a mourning ceremony for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024. President Raisi and the country's foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People attend a mourning ceremony for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, shown in the posters, at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024. President Raisi and the country's foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People hold up posters of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a mourning ceremony for him at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024. President Raisi and the country's foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
