FREELOADERS:

[H]e smiles from ear-to-ear as he caresses his loyal canine companion of two years, whose name "Negro" means "Black" in Spanish.

"He has also crossed everything just like us, he eats the same we eat, he's also a migrant," he told AFP in the town of Tecun Uman in eastern Guatemala, the sixth country stop on his north-bound route. [...]

On their long trip, the man and his best friend have often had to rely on charity, sometimes sharing their food.

When shelters did not allow animals, they slept on the street.

Why put himself through this? "We had to flee," Rodriguez said of his life in Venezuela.

"The salary is not enough, you buy everything in dollars and what they pay you in bolivars is nothing."

On the penultimate stretch of his journey, Rodriguez clambers onto a boat made of old tires and planks, a trip for which he paid just over $1.

He clutches Negro in his arms as a man pushes a long oar along the river floor, and ten minutes later, they are across.

The dog, seated quietly between his master's legs during the crossing, quickly jumps off and onto dry land, now in Mexico.

"We have crossed mountains, rivers, streams... we are no longer afraid of anything," said Moises Ayerdi, a 25-year-old Nicaraguan migrant who made the same trip.

He said he had left his home, wife and three-year-old daughter because he was the target of political persecution by President Daniel Ortega's government.

"Our feet hurt, we arrived here sick... We are used to it. We will continue. Just like we crossed Honduras, Guatemala, we will cross Mexico," he vowed.

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