Tegucigalpa.
Most of the thousands Honduran migrants that they left their country this Friday with the idea of reaching U.S, at the last minute they changed the route to get to the border with Guatemala, one of the participants in the mobilization informed Efe.
“At the last minute the decision was made to shorten the trip and because we saw a lot of exaggerated mobilization of police and army trucks following us,” he said. Jose Bardales, which comes from a banana field close to the municipality of La Lima, department of Cortés, in the north of Honduras.
He explained that basically the intention was to leave the country through the Agua Caliente customs point, Ocotepeque department, but they eventually decided to do it via El Florido, Copán, both in the west of Honduras, thanks to the follow-up of the security forces, who “noticed anyway, came back and caught up with us.”
“They – the police officers – say they don’t bother, but what they say is always different from what they do. All the comrades who have come to El Florido are talking to see if we make the decision to leave tomorrow morning,” he emphasized. Bardales.
Plus, they waited tonight for many of the migrants who stayed behind.
The idea of leaving early next Saturday “is better,” says Bardales, “because that way, if there was an act against us, the Guatemalan police and Honduras They won’t be able to claim that we had a cold in the dark of the night. “
THE STATE MUST SEND WATER AND FOOD, SAYS BARDALES
Bardales reported arriving at the San Pedro Sula Metropolitan Bus Station, in the north of the country, since Thursday, only to leave this morning with the caravan, which has been promoted on social networks since last day 1.
On reaching El Florido, Bardales said the journey is “very tiring”, with “a precarious situation on this road and quite cruel”, and that the Honduran state is in charge “of sending trucks with police and army instead. of send us food and water. “
“We need what we suffered with the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancer storms Iota and Eta that they ruined us at the end of last year, ”said the migrant, who also pointed out that he left his wife and nine-year-old daughter behind in his in-laws’ house.
Bardales said that in the Guaruma banana field, where he lived for many years, they “lost everything with his family” due to the severe floods that Eta y Iota, and that he goes in the caravan with seven family members, between cousins.
“We moved people along the way, some gave us water, a tortilla, others hit us in their car so we wouldn’t walk and took us as far as they could,” he said.
At some points on the highway, they were forced by police to disembark in the transports in which the migrants were traveling, according to Bardales, an auto mechanic, which allowed him to do “some very sporadic work.”
In El Florido, Efe was able to verify today that there were at least 150 police elements on the Honduran side, while the number is much higher in the border area of Guatemala.
“With my wife, we started a small business that we had in-house that we lost by 90 percent, now I want to keep fighting to recover, so I decided to see if I U.S to work for a while and then return, ”said the Honduran migrant.
He added that his family’s house, which was “partially damaged by the floods,” “pays for it by contract,” and doesn’t want to lose it.
THE CARAVAN IS VERY HEAVY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Bardales said he left his wife and daughter with their in-laws because the caravan road is “very difficult, not easy for women and children.”
“It hurts to leave your homeland, you would like to get ahead in your own country, but social and political situations don’t allow us and you have to make decisions like this,” he stressed.
The idea of Bardales is “to work hard in the United States,” where he says he has “a few cousins,” and knows that “the money is not going to be raised, as many think, but that you are working hard to get it. to earn.
“We have to fight to fulfill our dream of getting up, the idea is to go to the U.S, to work and return to our homeland, which we know is rich, but in the hands of few people who are the beneficiaries of the country, “he emphasized, recalling that his little daughter” cried when I left ” .