Mexico is bracing for the possible arrival of the "mother of all caravans," even as doubts arise over whether the group of Central American migrants will be all that big.
Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero has said a caravan of migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala could be forming.
"We have information that a new caravan is forming in Honduras, that they're calling 'the mother of all caravans,' and they are thinking it could have more than 20,000 people," Sanchez Cordero said Wednesday.
But a WhatsApp group calling for people to gather Saturday in El Salvador to set off for Guatemala only has about 206 members.
Activist Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied several caravans in Mexico, said reports about "the mother of all caravans" were false, claiming "this is information that (U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen) Nielsen is using to create fear."
Honduran activist Bartolo Fuentes, who accompanied a large caravan last year, dismissed the new reports as "part of the U.S. government's plans, something made up to justify their actions."
"We are going to do everything we can to help. We don't in any way want a confrontation with the U.S. government," he said. "It is legitimate that they are displeased and they voice these concerns."
Sanchez Cordero has pledged to form a police line of "containment" around Mexico's narrow