GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemalan soldiers blocked part of a caravan of as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants on Saturday at a point not far from where they entered the country to reach the U.S. border.
The soldiers, many of whom wore helmets and hovered with shields and sticks, formed ranks across a highway in Chiquimula, near the border between Honduras, to stop the march of migrants.
Guatemala’s immigration agency has released a video showing several hundred men scurrying with soldiers, pushing and running through their lines, even though troops were still holding back hundreds.
The President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, has issued a statement urging the Honduran authorities to restrict the mass exodus of its inhabitants. On Friday, the migrants entered Guatemala by pushing past about 2,000 police and soldiers posted at the border; most enrolled without showing the negative coronavirus test that Guatemala needs.
“The Government of Guatemala deplores this violation of national sovereignty and calls on the governments of Central America to take measures to prevent their residents from being endangered amid the health emergencies caused by the pandemic. , “Giammattei’s statement continued.
Guatemala has set up nearly a dozen checkpoints on highways and will likely start busing more migrants to Honduras, as before, arguing that they pose a risk to themselves and others by traveling during the coronavirus pandemic.
Governments across the region have made it clear that they will not allow the caravan to pass.
Mexico continued to drill thousands of members of the national guard and immigration agents at the southern border, in a show of force intended to discourage the caravan from crossing into Mexico.
On Friday night, two groups of more than 3,000 Honduran migrants each made their way to Guatemala without registering, part of a larger migrating caravan that left the San Pedro Sula dawn in Honduras. A third group entered Guatemala on Saturday.
The Honduran migrants are trying to cross Guatemala to reach Mexico, driven by the deepening of poverty and the hope of a warmer reception if they can reach the US border. However, several previous attempts to form caravans were broken up by Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
On Friday, the migrants leave San Pedro Sula around 4 a.m., young men and entire families carrying sleeping children. Some caught fast rides while others walked along the highway escorted by police.
Mainor Garcia, a 19-year-old worker from San Pedro Sula, was carrying a purple backpack as he walked along the highway early Friday. He said he was scared about the trip but willing to take the risk. “(Hurricanes) Eta and Iota have destroyed all our homes,” he said.
“There is no choice but to leave,” said 25-year-old Oscar Zaldivar, a manager at Cofradia. “You must leave here, this country, because we are going to die here.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement on Friday that ‘the combination of COVID-19, social exclusion, violence and climate-related disasters that were rare in Central America at the same time poses new humanitarian challenges. ”
The migrants leave with little certainty about how far they will reach it. Regional governments have recently appeared more united than ever before to halt their progress.
Francisco Garduño Yáñez, head of the National Immigration Institute in Mexico, said in a statement on Friday that his country “must guarantee our national territory” and called for an “orderly, safe and legal migration with respect for human rights and with humanitarian policy.’
On Wednesday, the regional conference on migration of 11 countries “expressed concern about the exposure of irregular migrants to high-risk situations for their health and their lives, mainly during the health emergency.”
On Thursday, Mexican officials said they had discussed migration with U.S. President Joe Biden’s election for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and discussed a possible program for the development of North Central America and southern Mexico “in response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the recent hurricanes in the region. “
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Escalon reported from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.