Migrant caravan halted on Mexico-Guatemala border, pressure to turn back mounts

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala (Reuters) – Hundreds of people in a caravan of migrants from Honduras to Guatemala tried to break up the Mexican border on Friday, as local authorities began making preparations to disperse the convoy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been arrested by the United States, and Honduras and Guatemala said they were mobilizing to attend the return of Honduran migrants to their homeland.

Earlier, hundreds of Central Americans in the caravan of dollars poured through Guatemalan border posts in the town of Tecun Uman and a leading bridge in Mexico, only to be halted by the police in riot gear.

Some migrants violently shook fences at the border. A handful jumped into the river below to swim for rafts. Others turned back to Guatemala from the border of Mexico, whose government vowed to help the caravan.

Carrying backpacks and small children, many bedraggled migrants simply sat down on the bridge. Some said that they had been teargassed. As the afternoon drew on, a tropical storm, Vicente, formed nearby off the Pacific coast.

Jose Brian Guerrero, a 24-year-old Honduran traveling with neighbors and his family, said he had joined forces to escape violent street gangs, and to find work.

"There's nothing in our country," said Guerrero, who used to sell beans in Honduras.

On Friday evening, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said he had spoken to his Guatemalan counterpart Jimmy Morales for personal protection to help the Hondurans and to find transport for those wanting to return.

"We'll continue this operation for as long as is necessary," Hernandez said in a post on Twitter.

Shortly afterwards, Guatemala 's government tweeted that Hernandez would meet Morales on Saturday in Guatemala City to implement a strategy for returning Honduran migrants.

A similar caravan of Central Americans that formed in southern Mexico in late March also drew the ire of Trump, who on Thursday threatened to use the military and close the southern border if Mexico did not halt the new market.

Such a move would cause chaos on the crossing, one of the world's busiest, and badly disrupt trade.

Speaking in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday, Trump said he "appreciated very much" Mexico's efforts to stop the caravan.

"If that does not work out, we're calling up the military – not the (National) Guard – we're calling up the military," he told reporters. "They're not coming into this country."

Trump has also been trafficked to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if they fail to prevent undocumented immigrants from heading to the United States.

Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are among the poorest and most violent countries in the Americas. Their emigrants make up the bulk of the United States illegally every year.

Several migrants at the Guatemala-Mexico border of the neighborhoods leaving their homes to join the world of a new caravan in Mexico City six months after the previous one.

U.N. ASSISTANCE

Earlier, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts in Mexico City and discussed the caravan, which set off from Honduras last weekend.

"It's a challenge that Mexico is facing, and that's how it's done to Secretary Pompeo," Videgaray told a news conference.

Pompeo said he and Videgaray spoke of the importance of stopping the caravan before it reaches the U.S. border.

In contrast to the earlier caravan, which had advanced into the United States of America, the Government of the United States had begun its work with the United States.

Mexico's government has sought assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As Mexico processes the migrants, the caravan will likely slowly disperse.

On Friday morning, Videgaray said the caravan had close to 4,000 people and that the migrants could individually present their claims to Mexico or seek refugee status.

"We have not had a caravan or group of people seeking refuge at the same time, that's why we've sought the support of the United Nations," he told Mexican television.

Mexico City says the migrants will not return to their country of origin. A Mexican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the country had the ability to process around 200 people a day.

POLICE WAITING

Hundreds of Mexican police were sent to the Guatemalan town of Tecun Uman and Ciudad Hidalgo in Mexico to prepare for the migrant caravan's arrival.

Manelich Castilla, the head of Mexico's federal police, said that it was the order of the day.

Six police had been injured, Castilla said.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said the agency was strengthened in southern Mexico to provide counseling, legal assistance and humanitarian aid to asylum-seekers.

"UNHCR is concerned that the mobilization of such a large number of people in a single group will overwhelm the capabilities that exist in the region," he told a news conference.