Guatemala tries blocking caravan of 9,000 Honduran migrants

Guatemalan troopers blocked a part of a caravan of as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants Saturday at a degree not removed from the place they entered the nation looking for to achieve the U.S. border.
The troopers, many sporting helmets and wielding shields and sticks, fashioned ranks throughout a freeway in Chiquimula, close to the Honduras border, to dam the procession of migrants.
Guatemala’s immigration company distributed a video exhibiting a few hundred males struggling with troopers, pushing and working via their strains, at the same time as troops held a whole lot extra again.
Guatemalan authorities estimated that as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants crossed into Guatemala as a part of an effort to kind a brand new caravan to achieve the U.S. border. (AP)
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei issued an announcement calling on Honduran authorities “to contain the mass exit of its inhabitants.” On Friday, the migrants entered Guatemala by pushing previous about 2,000 police and troopers posted on the border; most entered with out exhibiting the detrimental coronavirus check that Guatemala requires.
“The government of Guatemala regrets this violation of national sovereignty and calls on the governments of Central America to take measures to avoid putting their inhabitants at risk amid the health emergency due to the pandemic,” Giammattei’s assertion continued.
Guatemala has arrange nearly a dozen management factors on highways, and should begin busing extra migrants again to Honduras, because it has achieved earlier than, arguing they pose a threat to themselves and others by travelling through the coronavirus pandemic.
Governments all through the area have made it clear they won’t let the caravan via.
Mexico continued to drill hundreds of National Guard members and immigration brokers on its southern border, in a present of drive meant to to discourage the caravan from crossing into Mexico.
On Friday night time, two teams of greater than 3,000 Honduran migrants every pushed their approach into Guatemala with out registering, half of a bigger migrant caravan that had left the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula earlier than daybreak. A 3rd group entered Guatemala Saturday.
Guatemalan troopers block the street the place Honduran migrants, hoping to achieve the U.S. border, relaxation on the facet of a freeway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021.(AP Photo/Sandra Sebastian)
The Honduran migrants are attempting to cross Guatemala to achieve Mexico, pushed by deepening poverty and the hope of a hotter reception if they’ll attain the United States border. However, a number of earlier makes an attempt at forming caravans have been damaged up by Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
On Friday, the migrants set out at about 4 a.m. from San Pedro Sula, younger males and whole households carrying sleeping youngsters. Some rapidly caught rides whereas others walked alongside the freeway escorted by police.
Mainor Garcia, a 19-year-old laborer from San Pedro Sula, carried a purple knapsack as he walked alongside the freeway early Friday. He mentioned he was scared concerning the journey, however keen to run the chance. “(Hurricanes) Eta and Iota destroyed all of our homes,” he mentioned.
“There’s no choice” however to depart, mentioned 25-year-old Oscar Zaldivar, a driver from Cofradia. “You have to leave here, this country because we’re going to die here.”
The migrants pushed their approach into Guatemala Friday night time with out registering, a portion of a bigger migrant caravan that had left the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula earlier than daybreak, Guatemalan authorities mentioned. (AP Photo/Sandra Sebastian)
The International Committee of the Red Cross mentioned in an announcement Friday that “The combination of COVID-19, social exclusion, violence and climate-related disasters that occur at the same time with a magnitude seldom seen before in Central America raises new humanitarian challenges.”
The migrants go away with little certainty about how far they are going to make it. Regional governments have lately appeared extra united than ever in stopping their progress.
Francisco Garduño Yáñez, head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, mentioned in an announcement Friday that his nation has “to guarantee our national territory” and known as for “an orderly, safe and legal migration with respect for human rights and with humanitarian policies.”

On Wednesday, the 11-nation Regional Conference on Migration “expressed concern over the exposure of irregular migrants to situations of high risk to their health and their lives, primarily during the health emergency.”
On Thursday, Mexican officers mentioned that they had mentioned migration with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s decide for nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, and mentioned a attainable program for the event of northern Central America and southern Mexico “in response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the recent hurricanes in the region.”