GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemalan soldiers blocked part of a caravan of up to 9,000 Honduran migrants on Saturday at a point not far from where they entered the country seeking to reach the U.S. border.
The soldiers, who wore many helmets and had shields and sticks, formed rows across a road to Chiquimula, near the border with Honduras, to block the procession of immigrants.
The Guatemalan immigration agency distributed a video showing a couple of hundred men fighting with soldiers, pushing and running through their lines, even as troops detained hundreds more.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei issued a statement calling on the Honduran authorities to “contain the mass exodus of its inhabitants.” On Friday, migrants entered Guatemala passing 2,000 police and soldiers sent to the border; most entered without showing the negative coronavirus test required by Guatemala.
“The Guatemalan government regrets this violation of national sovereignty and calls on Central American governments to take steps to avoid putting their inhabitants at risk in the midst of the health emergency due to the pandemic,” Giammattei’s statement continued. .
Guatemala has established nearly a dozen checkpoints on highways and may begin transporting more migrants to Honduras, as it has done before, arguing that they pose a risk to themselves and others traveling during the coronavirus pandemic.
Governments across the region have made it clear they will not let the caravan pass.
Mexico continued to pierce thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents on the southern border, in a show of strength aimed at deterring the caravan from passing through Mexico.
On Friday night, two groups of more than 3,000 Honduran migrants entered Guatemala without registering, forming part of a larger caravan of migrants that had left the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula before dawn. A third group entered Guatemala on Saturday.
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 U.S. border. However, several previous attempts to form caravans have been broken by Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
On Friday, the migrants left around four in the morning for San Pedro Sula, young men and entire families carrying sleeping children. Some quickly grabbed attractions, while others walked down the road escorted by police.
Mainor Garcia, a 19-year-old worker from San Pedro Sula, was carrying a purple backpack while walking down the road early Friday. He said he was afraid of the trip, but was willing to take the risk. “(Hurricanes) Eta and Iota destroyed all our houses,” he said.
“There is no choice” but to leave, said Oscar Zaldivar, a 25-year-old Cofradia pilot. “You have to leave here, this country because we will die here.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Friday that “The combination of COVID-19, social exclusion, violence and climate-related disasters that occur at the same time with a magnitude rarely seen before in Central America poses new challenges. humanitarian. ”
Migrants leave with little certainty about how far they will go. Regional governments have recently appeared more united than ever in stopping their progress.
Francisco Garduño Yáñez, head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, said in a statement Friday that his country “must guarantee our national territory” and called for “orderly, safe and legal migration with respect to human rights.” human rights and humanitarian policies “.
On Wednesday, the Regional Conference on Migration, eleven countries, “expressed its concern about the exposure of irregular migrants to situations of high risk to their health and life, mainly during the health emergency.”
On Thursday, Mexican officials said they had discussed migration with the selection of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden for National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and discussed a possible program for North American development Central and southern Mexico “in response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and recent hurricanes in the region.”
__
Escalon reported from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.