Tegucigalpa.
Five migrants from Cuba were detained in the Choluteca department, in southern Honduras, as well as three alleged human traffickers accompanying them, Honduran police reported Sunday.
The arrest is evidenced by a statement by the Honduran police, took place in the municipality of Namasigüe, Choluteca, on the border with Nicaragua, when the immigrants traveled in two vehicles driven by the traffickers, known as’coyotes“.
The detained Hondurans, aged 38 and 41, have been brought to trial and will be charged with the crimes of “illegal domestic briberyhe added.
The men were captured by agents of the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit (UTIC) Police Department Investigations (DPI) and Border Police, and Namasigüe.
Police pointed out that the Hondurans were transferring the immigrants from Choluteca, in southern Honduras, to the border with Guatemala to continue their way to the United States.
“These individuals, after noting that they would be detained, offered 20,000 lempiras ($ 826) to the officials in exchange for their release,” the official said. Honduran police.
The Cubans are being held in an office of the National Migration Institute in Choluteca, where authorities will decide whether to issue a permit to cross 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 traverse the Central American countries to reach the United States, whose authorities in recent years have security at the border with Mexico strengthens.
Honduras signed an agreement with the United States in September 2019 to stop irregular migration from Central American countries.
According to the collaboration agreement released by the Department of Homeland Security last May (DHS, in English), the governments of Honduras and the United States agreed to send asylum seekers to the Central American country to the United States authorities.
The document joins two similar cooperation agreements on asylum matters that have been reached Guatemala, on July 26, 2019, and El Salvador, on September 20 of last year, respectively.