Migrant caravan from Honduras stopped in Guatemala

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Several 100 migrants who had departed from the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula Saturday successful hopes of reaching the United States entered Guatemalan territory wherever they were intercepted by authorities who began talks connected returning them to their homelands.

Some 300 migrants, chiefly Hondurans and Nicaraguans, arrived successful Corinto, Honduras Saturday day and crossed into the Guatemalan borderline state of Izabal, wherever they were met by hundreds of anti-riot agents from the nationalist constabulary and army.

The Guatemalan Migration Institute said it was successful talks with the migrants connected returning them to their countries of origin. Those who privation to stay successful Guatemala indispensable contiguous their idiosyncratic recognition document, vaccination paper and a antagonistic trial for the coronavirus.

“People are being returned, everything successful order, humanely,” said institute wide manager Carlos Emilio Morales. “We are protecting our borders; we are protecting the wellness of each Guatemalans.”

Guatemala’s authorities said 36 radical were deported to Honduras due to the fact that they did not conscionable the requirements and a radical of 10 who met migration and wellness requirements were allowed to continue.

The migrants had begun their travel toward the U.S. from San Pedro Sula soon aft dawn Saturday, walking to the Guatemalan borderline successful hopes that travelling successful a radical would beryllium safer oregon cheaper than trying to prosecute smugglers oregon trying connected their own. They were joined by a 2nd smaller group.

Fabricio Ordoñez, a young Honduran laborer, said helium had joined the radical successful hopes of “giving a caller beingness to my family.”

“The imagination is to beryllium successful the United States to beryllium capable to bash galore things successful Honduras,” helium said, adding helium was pessimistic that left-leaning President-elect Xiomara Castro, who takes bureau connected Jan. 27, would beryllium capable to rapidly lick the Central American nation’s economical and societal problems aft 12 years of blimpish administrations plagued by scandal.

“They person looted everything,” helium said. “It is going to beryllium precise hard for this authorities to amended things.”

Nicaraguan marcher Ubaldo López expressed anticipation that section officials would not effort to hinder this group, arsenic they person successful the past.

“We cognize this is simply a precise hard roadworthy and we inquire God and the Honduran authorities to delight travel america to the borderline with Guatemala and not enactment much roadblocks,” helium said.

He said helium hoped that Guatemala and Mexico besides would let the radical to walk and that the U.S. authorities “will unfastened the doors to us” — contempt repeated caller examples of determination governments, often nether U.S. pressure, trying to halt specified caravans.

The caravan, which is the archetypal to beryllium registered this year, primitively had astir 600 members but divided into respective groups to effort to evade the power of the Guatemalan authorities and spell done the antithetic borderline crossings and amerciable routes.

Large numbers of migrants, galore from Central America and Haiti, person reached the U.S. borderline implicit the past year, creating a headache for the medication of President Joe Biden.

In December, 56 migrants died erstwhile a motortruck carrying much than a 100 foreigners overturned connected a road successful confederate Mexico.

The U.S. Border Patrol has said it had much than 1.6 cardinal encounters with migrants on the Mexican borderline betwixt September 2020 and the aforesaid period successful 2021 — much than 4 times the full of the erstwhile fiscal year.

Biden has backed proposals for $7 cardinal successful assistance to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras successful hopes improved economical conditions volition dilatory migration.

At the extremity of past year, the U.S. authorities reactivated an migration argumentation that forced asylum seekers to hold successful Mexico for their hearings. Mexico’s overseas ministry confirmed the reactivation of the U.S. programme and said it would temporarily not instrumentality migrants to their countries of root for humanitarian reasons.

The authorities of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has indicated that Washington has accepted its humanitarian concerns with the program, including the request for “greater resources for shelters and planetary organizations, extortion for susceptible groups, information of section information conditions” arsenic good arsenic vaccines and anti-COVID-19 measures from migrants.