Guatemalan officials report that approximately 6,500 migrants are on the move from Honduras. The migrants began pushing through the Guatemalan southern border. Their ultimate destination — U.S.A.
Guatemala’s immigration spokesman Alejandra Mena told Reuters that there were approximately 6,500 Honduran migrants on the move. Thousands crossed the country’s southern border on Saturday with an ultimate announced destination of the United States.
Mena told the news outlet that as many as 3,500 have already pushed through their border into Guatemala. A Honduran police officer said he observed “more or less 5,000 people” walk past his checkpoint.
A video tweeted by Festivales Solidarios shows thousands pushing past Guatemalan police and soldiers.
La gente escapa del infierno que se vive en el mal llamado "Triángulo Norte de Centroamérica"; pobreza, miseria, corrupción, impunidad y un total abandono de los gobiernos a la población. Por eso la gente huye en este #ExodoEnCentroamerica#NingunaPersonaEsIlegal
📹 Cortesía. pic.twitter.com/6iPnk2BeOq— Festivales Solidarios (@festivalesgt) January 17, 2021
Guatemalan soldiers blocked part of the caravan at a point a few miles north of where they pushed across the border from Honduras, ABC News stated. Guatmala is aggressively attempting to detain the Honduran migrants and bus them back to their home country.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei called on Honduran authorities to “contain the mass exit of its inhabitants,” ABC News reported. “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.”
The new caravan reportedly embarked on Friday at about 4 a.m. from San Pedro Sula. Migrants blame this summer’s hurricane and economic conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic
“There’s no choice” but to leave, 25-year-old Oscar Zaldivar, a driver from Cofradia, told ABC News. “You have to leave here, this country because we’re going to die here.”
Guatemalan officials report some of the caravan migrants are headed to Tecun Uman located in southern Mexico.
Story cited here.