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ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala – On Monday, hundreds of Honduran migrants crossed the Guatemalan border under a scorching sun, hoping to live a new life in the United States, far from the poverty and violence of their homeland. 39; origin.
Police arrested migrants at a roadblock outside Esquipulas for several hours in the afternoon, but the travelers refused to return to the border and were finally allowed to pass through. .
They arrived in the city as night fell, exhausted by the heat of the day, trampling on swollen feet. Few people were carrying food and some locals started organizing to help feed them. Some migrants asked for money, others in front of a bakery, received bread.
Earlier in the day, migrants arrived at the Guatemalan border singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, "Yes, we can. .
"We have rights," shouted the migrants.
Keilin Umana, a 21-year-old two-month-old pregnant woman, said she had been displaced in order to emigrate to save her childhood after being threatened with death.
Umana, a nurse, said she had been walking for four days. "We are not criminals, we are migrants," she said.
Many in the caravan traveled light, with just backpacks and bottles of water. Some pushed young children in strollers or carried them on their shoulders.
Carlos Cortez, a 32-year-old farmer walking with his 7-year-old son, said his family's poverty made it impossible to support a family.
"Every day I earn about $ 5," Cortez said. "It's not enough to feed my family."
A hundred Guatemalan police met the caravan at the border. After a stalemate of about two hours, the migrants started to walk again. Outnumbered, the police did nothing to stop them and accompanied them several kilometers from the Guatemalan territory.
The agents then set up the roadblock about 2 km from the city of Esquipulas, where the migrants planned to spend the night.
The migrants were stuck for about three hours. About 250 policemen prevented them from going ahead and told them that they had to go back to the border to pass the immigration. The migrants refused to move and it appeared that they would probably sleep on the road. But finally, the officers let them pass.
Guatemalan police and civilians offered water to the migrants and some residents drove the Hondurans along part of the road. Red Cross workers treated migrants who fainted in the heat.
The caravan began with about 160 people who gathered Friday morning to leave San Pedro Sula, one of the most dangerous places in Honduras, believing that traveling in groups would make them less vulnerable to theft, assaults and other common dangers on the migratory path. through Central America and Mexico.
Local media coverage prompted hundreds of people to join the group, and Dunia Montoya, a volunteer who helps migrants, said Sunday that the group had at least 1,600 people. The police gave their own estimate at around 2,000 on Monday.
The caravan formed a day after US Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay at home and not put their families at risk. undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States.
In April, President Donald Trump threatened in April to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries allowing transit of a similar caravan from that Central American country. This caravan declined as the group approached the US border, with some abandoning en route and others separating to try to cross their own.
Historian Dana Frank, a specialist in human rights and American politics in Honduras, said the caravan could have political implications in the United States less than a month before the mid-term elections.
"Regardless of the origins of the caravan, some people in the United States will not hesitate to sound the alarm about an alleged invasion of dangerous immigrants, and to be sure that they will be safe. use it to try to influence the upcoming US elections, "Frank Frank said. "Others will see these migrants with compassion and further evidence of the need for a comprehensive immigration reform …."
Frank added that the rapid growth of the caravan "underscores how desperate the Honduran people are: they would start walking to a refuge in the United States with only a full day of goods back."
Sociologist Jenny Arguello told San Pedro Sula, where the procession began, that the authorities wanted to make mass migration a political event, but that it is only the poor who are fleeing violence.
"From my community, 20 people left and a neighbor came back sad with his little backpack, because when he arrived, they were already gone," said Arguello. "You see that the need to leave is the priority. People have already made their decision and have just heard about the possibility they are taking. "
Honduras is largely dominated by deadly gangs that target families and businesses, and consistently finds some of the highest homicide rates in the world.
On the evening of Monday, the Mexican immigration authorities indicated in a statement to the caravan that the agents would be required to examine them individually at the border and that those who did not comply with the conditions would not be allowed to enter. .
Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the caravan was "what we see day after day at the border as a result of well-entrenched loopholes and well known for release to the water. . "
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Editors from the associated Maria Verza press in San Pedro Sula and Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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