Tegucigalpa.
Five migrants from Cuba were detained in the department of Choluteca in southern Honduras, as well as three alleged traffickers who accompanied them, Honduran police said on Sunday.
The arrest, according to a statement from the Honduran police, Occurred in the municipality of Namasigüe, Choluteca, bordering Nicaragua, When immigrants were traveling in two vehicles driven by traffickers, known as “coyotes“.
The detained Hondurans, aged 38 and 41, were brought to justice and must be charged with the crimes of “illegal trafficking in human beings and domestic bribe“, Added.
The men were captured by agents of the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit (UTIC) of the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI) and the Border Police, in Namasigüe.
Police said Hondurans were transporting immigrants from Choluteca, southern Honduras, to the border with Guatemala to continue en route to the United States.
“When these individuals observed that they would be detained, they offered 20,000 lempiras ($ 826) to the officials in exchange for releasing them,” Honduran police.
Cubans are being held at an office of the National Migration Institute in Choluteca, where authorities will decide whether to grant them permission to cross the national territory or return them to their country of origin.
In recent decades the Central American country has become a transit point for migrants, especially Cubans and Africans, who cross Central American countries to reach the United States, authorities have stepped up security in recent years. on the border with Mexico.
Honduras signed an agreement with the United States in September 2019 that seeks to end irregular migration from Central American countries.
According to the cooperation agreement issued last May by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS, In English), the governments of Honduras and the United States agreed to send asylum seekers to the Central American country to the US authorities.
The document joins two similar asylum cooperation agreements reached with Guatemala, On July 26, 2019, and El Salvador, on September 20 last year, respectively.