Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants leave southern Mexico to travel to U.S. border

Hundreds of migrants set off from Mexico’s southern border early on Friday on a northward journey to the U.S.-Mexico border where hundreds of others are stranded following a deal to expel Venezuelan migrants crossing into the United States.
The group of people departed around 4 a.m. from the city of Tapachula, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, en route to San Pedro Tapanatepec in Mexico’s Oaxaca state, where migrants can acquire permits to cross the country.
A migration official estimated the total number of migrants at 500, mostly Venezuelans, although local media reported the group to be over 1,000.
Around 200 migrants stayed behind in Tapachula.
Also on Friday, around 300 Venezuelan migrants gathered in the northern Mexican border town of Matamoros, trying to cross the Matamoros-Brownsville bridge into Texas.
Some migrants chained themselves together in protest and painted their hands white in a symbolic gesture of peace.