Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Guatemala yesterday warned of the formation of a new caravan of Honduran migrants bound for the United States, despite the latest exodus on Guatemalan soil being suppressed and authorities in the region announcing that they would close the borders to mass flows.
Alejandra Mena, spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Migration Institute, told journalists they have ‘information’ about a ‘possible entry of a huge group of people’ for the next few days, consisting of migrants from Honduras and some from El Salvador, although it is not date specified.
The caravan was able to enter through El Florido and Agua Caliente, border crossings between Guatemala and Honduras in the east, so “it is communicating with the Honduran immigration authorities to provide extensive assistance,” Mena said.
He added that representatives of Guatemalan health and safety institutions met yesterday to “exchange information and present the lessons” from the previous caravans.
Expelled
In mid-January, Guatemalan police and soldiers forcibly disbanded a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants, including hundreds of children, who stormed the border without providing documents or negative evidence of COVID-19 required by the government.
The security forces acted on a decree by President Alejandro Giammattei, who ordered their progress to be halted due to the risks of the new coronavirus pandemic that left more than 166,200 cases and 6,000 deaths in Guatemala in the past 11 months.
About 7,000 people entered that last caravan and most were sent back to Honduras, according to official data from Guatemala, which lashed out at the neighboring country for not preventing their departure.
A week after the migrants were repelled, even with clubs, by the uniformed officers, diplomats from the United States, Mexico and Guatemala warned that the borders would be closed to the passage of other caravans.
Since October 2018, illegal migration to the United States from Central America has taken a turn for the worse with the departure of caravans of thousands of people, mostly from Northern Honduras.
Members of the last caravan said they were fleeing poverty, violence and the crisis that followed the passage of two hurricanes in November.