MEXICO CITY _ Hundreds of Central American immigrants Monday forded the fast-moving Suchiate River to cross illegally into Mexico a day after violent clashes at the Guatemala-Mexico border left one man dead and dozens of people injured.
The migrants, who formed a human chain and struggled through shoulder-deep currents as a police helicopter buzzed overhead, managed to cross onto Mexican soil. But they were met by dozens of Mexican federal police officers and immigration agents, who took many of the migrants into custody.
The dramatic scene at Mexico's southern border came more than one week after an even larger caravan of immigrants illegally crossed the Suchiate and began the long trek toward the United States. That caravan prompted President Donald Trump to order thousands of soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The first caravan, which consists of about 4,000 migrants _ many from Honduras _ is still about 900 miles south of the U.S. border. The caravan, which has not been stopped by Mexican authorities since it crossed the river Oct. 20, has inspired thousands of other immigrants from Central American nations to set out together in recent days in large groups heading north.
The most recent caravan arrived over the weekend in the Guatemalan town of Tecun Uman, just across the Mexican border.
At first, migrants found themselves unable to cross the river, which on Saturday was being patrolled by Mexican soldiers and more than a dozen Mexican marine boats, and also unable to access the bridge that leads to a legal border crossing into Mexico. The border crossing in the Mexican town of Ciudad Hidalgo has not been fully operational since it was stormed by members of the first caravan last week.
On Sunday, members of the new caravan tore down a chain-link fence that Guatemalan officials had erected to prohibit entry onto the bridge. Dozens of Guatemalan forces dressed in riot gear sought to push the migrants back with shields and rounds of tear gas, but were unsuccessful.
Hundreds of migrants then began streaming onto the bridge toward the Mexican side, where they were met with several other metal fences and masses of Mexican police.
Some migrants threw rocks and glass bottles at police and officers responded by firing rubber bullets, according to migrants and journalists who were at the scene. A Mexican police helicopter circled overhead, they said, dropping tear gas onto the crowd.
Shortly before sundown, a 26-year-old from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, named Henry Diaz suffered a head wound. Rescuers evacuated his limp body and took him to a hospital, where he died.
Journalists and migrants at the scene said Diaz was hit by a rubber bullet fired by Mexican police.
On Monday, Mexico's interior secretary disputed that claim, insisting that Mexican police officers were not armed.
"The police did not have weapons, did not intend to attack any person, and the instruments used were deterrents so that neither women, nor children, nor young people would suffer any harm," the secretary, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, said in an interview with journalists.
Navarrete said migrants had thrown Molotov cocktails at police, and said Diaz had been photographed trying to knock down the entrance gate to Mexico with a battering ram.
Authorities said 10 police officers were injured, two of them seriously. Local news reports said at least 100 immigrants were also injured.
