As the sun rises over the Usumacinta River between Guatemala and Mexico, the silence is broken by the sounds of people awaking after another night camping on the riverbanks.
Soon the ferrymen who pilot a flotilla of makeshift rafts constructed of planks strapped to very large inner tyre tubes, begin their never-ending trade of moving fruit and vegetables, construction equipment, crates of beer and liquor, motorcycles and bicycles, but above all – people.
This is where thousands of migrants heading to the United States begin what they hope to be the last leg of their often epic journeys to the northern border with the US.
1600 miles through Mexico is all that separates them from their dreams of a new life.
Amongst the migrants we come across is 14-year-old Edgar Fonseca Cepeda.
He is completely on his own; an unaccompanied minor migrant.
Edgar travelled from Venezuela to Colombia where his grandmother, who had been caring for him, died.
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Now he is trying to get to his mother who is in Washington DC and has undertaken this journey on his own.
We arrange for him to speak to his mother Carolina on a video call.
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It was heartbreaking to witness.
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14-year-old migrant travels alone to reach his mother in US
Both mum and son started crying, and his mum kept saying how sorry she was that he was having to do this journey alone.
The day before, Edgar had explained to her that he, along with another group of migrants, had been kidnapped by a gang – he was only released after handing over $75 scrambled together by fellow travellers.
“We decided to come here on foot, which is a risk, and well, before Tapachula, just before we got here, we had already walked about six kilometres, we were stopped by a few bikers,” he explained to me.
“That’s when they told us not to cry, not to scream because nothing was going to happen to us, we thought that we were going to be surrounded by immigration, but no, they took us to a chicken coop…”
The group, including Edgar, say they were held for eight to 10 hours.
We’ve heard exactly the same testimony from a number of migrants we’ve spoken to in the last few days.
“The truth is, it was horrible that chicken coop, people holding guns, I’m not used to seeing things like that, it was really scary,” Edgar added.
Image: The route across Mexico to reach the northern border with the US
We spoke to his mum Carolina, and she asked us to take him to the authorities, saying it was too dangerous for him to continue alone.
Edgar says he hasn’t seen his mother for six or seven months.
“It’s really very, very hard, I miss her so much, that’s why I’ve done all of this.”
Edgar bade an emotional goodbye to his new travelling family, the strangers who helped look after him on the journey.
He is safe now but when he will see his mother again nobody can say.
Constant rule changes
I’ve been here many times to report over many years and I am never less than amazed at the number of people who attempt this journey, and the sheer number of small children.
But this time I’ve noticed some things have changed.
Whereas a few years ago the migrants were almost entirely from Southern and Central America, now they’re from all over the world.
On this trip we have met young men and women from China, Egypt, Jordan, Somalia, Mauritania, Kazakhstan, Haiti, and Gambia, to name a few.
Another major change seems to be the attitude of the Mexican authorities.
Image: Migrants bathe in the river
Image: A migrant sleeps near the river
In the past, the passage of the migrants north, while not easy, wasn’t noticeably hindered by the Mexicans.
Now though, with the issue of migration on its southern border a political hot potato in a United States election year, the Mexican authorities have got the message from the United States that thousands of migrants on the border fence is not a good look.
What we have witnessed is a system that doesn’t actually stop the migrants moving north, but makes it bureaucratic, confusing and often contradictory enough that the migrants don’t know what to do.
The US has a problem with the numbers, so people travelling through Mexico are shifted from one location to another and left, and then shifted again – never really making any progress.
Legally, migrants and asylum seekers cannot be stopped, but they can be asked to follow rules (or have their paperwork torn up), and if the rules keep changing, there is nothing they can do about.
After crossing the Usumacinta River from Guatemala, the migrants rest in the city of Hidalgo, before forming into groups known as “caravans” to begin their journey north.
They travel together for safety from gangs and criminals who prey on the migrants.
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Migrants worldwide head to the US through Mexico
We joined a pop-up caravan shortly before dawn; they move at that time to take advantage of the cooler temperatures.
This caravan is led by a young Brazilian man named Davyde who is with his wife and sister-in-law.
“Brazil is not good, I can’t make enough money to pay the rent, America would be great,” he told me when I wondered why he’d made the journey from Brazil.
As we walk with the group of 200 plus people, the sun rises and the temperature soars.
Whole families, very young and old, travel along the sides of busy motorways, heading north – always north.
Walking with the group, we meet Mayra Ferrerr from Acarigua in Venezuela.
The 40-year-old is travelling with her two sons and some fellow Venezuelans.
They’ve all become friends along the way. Mayra has breast cancer, and she’s trying to get to her family in the US.
Image: Migrant caravan leader Davyde is seen in the white vest
“We left Venezuela because there is no education, because there is no medicine, because I am an oncology patient and I cannot get treatment in the public health system for breast cancer,” she told me.
“And well, I needed to go somewhere where I can be checked and continue treatment.”
Mayra explained that she’s doing chemotherapy in the form of pills, but that she stopped taking them so that she wasn’t too weak on this journey.
She says it’s tough, but that she and her family and friends plan to keep going.
“Well, it is hard because unfortunately in many towns we have crossed, they take advantage of our situation, our need to keep moving forward, and the costs, be it water or bread, they make it more expensive for us.”
Image: A man sleeps with his daughter near the river
Most of the migrants are carrying tents, an absolute necessity for crossing the Darien Gap – a notorious jungle crossing on the migrant route, which lies between Colombia and Panama.
Mayra says the tents are worth holding on to.
“We have kept our tents because we have nowhere to stay, and we have to set up the tent and camp anywhere, so that we can keep moving forward.”
After a few hours of walking the migrants approach an immigration checkpoint where they are met by Mexican immigration officers.
Image: A woman and baby wait near the checkpoint
We keep filming as they are told they will be taken north to the first major city in southern Mexico called Tapachula.
The immigration officials give the migrants water and assure them that they are allowed to continue their journey north, that the involvement of immigration is simply to offer them a ride to Tapachula and a free meal.
The migrants are sceptical, but over and over they are assured that once they are in Tapachula they can get paperwork done and continue.
The ones who agree have their identity cards and passports logged and checked, and then they’re loaded onto minibuses.
Mayra, her two sons, and her friends all agree to go in the migration minibus to Tapachula.
This doesn’t mean however that a journey further north is going to happen anytime soon.
At another immigration checkpoint on the outskirts of Tapachula, crowds surge around immigration staff, waving their papers.
All they’re trying to do is get on a bus north, but the Mexican authorities assumed assistance has dried up.
America does not want them in the north and nor it seems does Mexico, so they’re in a limbo.
At multiple checkpoints we saw what is developing into a multinational mess.
Image: Mexico’s National Guard patrols the area near the river
Groups of young Chinese men and women take shade amongst Jordanians, Egyptians, Somalis, Gambians, even two friends from Kazakhstan.
The list of nationalities is remarkable, not least because of the distances they’ve travelled.
Said is a 28-year-old Afghan who worked for a British NGO until the Taliban arrived in Kabul in August 2021.
Image: Migrants gathered at the park in Tapachula
He says he got his paperwork to leave from Kabul Airport at the time, but abandoned his plans after a suicide bomb went off at the evacuation point.
Said’s father and two uncles were killed by the Taliban, and he sees no safe future for his family there.
Indeed, he asked us not to show his face or use his full name because it would be dangerous for family members still in Afghanistan.
Image: A Mexican military vehicle near the checkpoint
Said is travelling with his wife, three young children, and his 74-year-old grandfather who has stage one Alzheimer’s.
Said told me that other migrants have nicknamed his grandad the “warrior” for undertaking such an intense physical journey in his older years.
The family has been on the move for two years.
“I realised I am on my own, I have to do it for myself, for my family, I’ve realised nobody is going to help me,” he told me.
Image: Said is seen holding his son
Said knows the political mood in the United States ahead of the presidential elections in November will be a factor in their chances of making it.
“I believe in God, I know I am in Mexico and 90% of the people are arriving there, actually, before the election, I need to get there before the election because I don’t know the next president, what he will do and what he is thinking about refugees like us,” he said.
‘They are the law… we are nobody’
All these migrants are in a sort of vortex – not being stopped from travelling north but not being allowed to either.
The day after meeting Mayra and her group of family and friends heading north, we travelled again south to the river.
Image: Migrants from China, Kazakhstan and Nigeria
On our way back we recognised some of Mayra’s group on the side of the road, exactly where they originally started.
We were confused, so we pulled over to talk to them.
They explained they were taken north to Tapachula, given some food, waited about an hour not knowing what was happening, then put back on the minibus and sent straight back to the riverside where they started.
They told us they were given additional paperwork, and then, as they put it “thrown out on the street”.
Image: Mayra and her son wait to board a minibus
I asked one of them, Christian Heredia, if the authorities acknowledged that taking them all the way back doesn’t help.
“They’re delaying us, yes, they know, of course, but as I was saying, they are the law here, here we are nobody, so they do as they please with the migrants. Right? That’s the truth,” he replied.
Christian says many of the migrants we had seen loaded into the minibuses and promised a ride to Tapachula the previous day had been pushed back to the river just like them.
They suspect the authorities only promised to look after them because of our presence, otherwise they believe the migration officials probably would’ve just driven them straight back down to the river.
Image: Christian Heredia with his daughter
Local buses don’t usually pick up migrants because they’re not allowed to, but standing on the side of the road with fresh papers, Christian and the group were able to flag down a minibus to take them back to Tapachula.
They reunited with Mayra and her boys in the main square where migrants from all over the world gather.
They, like everyone there, refuse to accept defeat. But their mammoth journeys are far from over.
Indeed, their difficulties continue.
The last we heard from Mayra and her friends they’d been robbed at gunpoint in a bus taking them further north.
They rose to their feet in ecstatic surprise, shouting “heydar, heydar” – a Shia victory chant.
This was the first public appearance of their supreme leader since Israel began attacking their country.
He emerged during evening prayers in his private compound. He said nothing but looked stern and resolute as he waved to the crowd.
He has spent the last weeks sequestered in a bunker, it is assumed, for his safety following numerous death threats from Israel and the US.
His re-emergence suggests a return to normality and a sense of defiance that we have witnessed here on the streets of Tehran too.
Earlier, we had filmed as men in black marched through the streets of the capital to the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, whipping their backs with metal flails.
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Defiance on streets of Tehran
This weekend they mark the Shia festival of Ashura as they have for 14 centuries. But this year has poignant significance for Iranians far more than most.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday. We filmed men and women weeping as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The armies of the Caliph Yazid killed the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala.
Shiite Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates, of resistance against oppression and injustice.
But more so than ever in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here among people and officials.
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Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
Death to Israel chants resounded outside the mosque in skies which were filled for 12 days with the sounds of Israeli jets. There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
A woman was dismissive about the US president. “I don’t think about Trump, nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby draw a line between Imam Hussein’s story and current events. The seventh-century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
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Officially Iran is projecting defiance but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times,” she said.
“We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
But there is also a hint of conciliation: Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News that back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. That proved unfounded, the government is in control here.
For many Iranians, it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
To the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, they march, whipping their backs with metal flails.
It is an ancient ceremony going back almost 14 centuries – the Shia commemoration of Ashura.
But this year in particular has poignant significance for Iranians.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of the Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday.
Image: Iranians gather ahead of Ashura
We filmed men and women weep as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed by the armies of the Caliph Yazid in the seventh century Battle of Karbala.
More on Iran
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Shia Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates – of resistance against oppression and injustice. But more so than ever this year, in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here by people and officials.
Image: Men and women weeped as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America, which it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israellaunched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
“Death to Israel” chants resounded outside the mosque in skies that for 12 days were filled with the sounds of Israeli jets.
There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression, even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
Image: ‘I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him,’ one woman tells Sky News
A woman was dismissive about the US president.
“I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby link Imam Hussein’s story and current events. They show the seventh century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
Officially Iran is projecting defiance, but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence, and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times. We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
Image: Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani said it would be a mistake for Israel to attack again
But there is also a hint of conciliation. Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. Those hopes proved unfounded. The government is in control here.
For many Iranians it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
Two American security workers in Gaza were injured after grenades were thrown during food distribution in Khan Younis, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has said.
In a statement, the US and Israeli-backed aid group said a targeted terrorist attack was carried out at one of its sites in southern Gazaon Saturday morning.
The two Americans injured “are receiving medical treatment and are in stable condition,” it said, adding that the delivery of aid was “otherwise successful” and that “no local aid workers or civilians were harmed”.
GHF didn’t say exactly when the incident happened but claimed Hamaswas behind the attack, adding: “GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food.
“Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings.”
Later, the aid group posted a picture on social media, which it said showed “fragments of a grenade packed with ball bearings” that was used in the attack.
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Asked by Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, whether the two injured individuals were responsible for handing out aid or were responsible for providing security, GHF said they were “American security workers” and “two American veterans.”
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The aid group did not provide specific evidence that Hamas was behind the attack.
The US and Israeli-backed group has been primarily responsible for aid distribution since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade of the Gaza Strip in May.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, 600 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid from GHF sites as of 3 July, which charities and the UN have branded “death traps”.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that Israeli-backed American contractors guarding GHF aid centres in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades.
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Contractors allege colleagues ‘fired on Palestinians’
GHF has vehemently denied the accusations, adding that it investigated AP’s allegations and found them to be “categorically false”.
Israel’s military added that it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm.
It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centres.