Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Guatemala warned yesterday of the formation of a new caravan of Honduran migrants bound for the United States, although the latest exodus was repressed on Guatemalan soil and authorities in the region announced the closure of borders to mass flows.
Alejandra Mena, spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Institute for Migration, told reporters that they have “information” about a “possible entry of a massive group of people” for the next few days made up of migrants from Honduras and some of El Salvador, although no date has been specified.
The caravan could enter through El Florido and hot water, Guatemala’s border crossings with Honduras to the east, so that “communication with Honduran immigration authorities is maintained to attend to it in a comprehensive manner,” Mena said.
He added that representatives of Guatemala’s health and safety institutions met yesterday to “exchange information and expose the lessons learned” from previous caravans.
expelled
In mid-January, Guatemalan police and soldiers forcibly disbanded a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants, including hundreds of children, who broke into the border without presenting documents or negative proof of covid-19, demanded by the government.
Security forces acted under a decree by President Alejandro Giammattei, which ordered a halt to its advance due to the risks of the pandemic of the new coronavirus that has left more than 166,200 cases and 6,000 dead in Guatemala in the last 11 months.
Some 7,000 people entered the latter caravan and most were returned to Honduras, according to official data from Guatemala which lashed out at its neighboring country for not preventing its departure.
A week after the migrants were repelled, even by beatings, by uniformed men, diplomats from the United States, Mexico and Guatemala warned that the borders would be closed for the passage of other caravans.
Since October 2018, illegal migration to the United States from Central America took a turn with the departure of caravans of thousands of people, mainly from northern Honduras.
Members of the last caravan said they were fleeing poverty, violence and the crisis left by the passage of two hurricanes in November.