MEXICO – The Mexican government sent Wednesday on its southern border with Guatemala two planes of 727 Boeing aircraft filled with federal police officers to intercept a caravan of Central American migrants attempting to reach the US border.

The Ministries of the Interior and External Relations said in a joint statement that any migrant in the caravan without proper immigration papers would be arrested and "returned to his country of origin". Those who possess appropriate documents or wish to apply for asylum would be allowed to enter Mexico.

The migrant caravan began last week in San Pedro Sula (Honduras), one of the most violent cities in the hemisphere, with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

The group of migrants has grown to about 4,000 people even though President Donald Trump has sentenced them and threatened to cut aid to Honduras if their government officials did not cooperate to prevent their travel to the states. -United.

"The United States has firmly informed the President of Honduras that if the large caravan of people heading to the United States has not been arrested and brought back to Honduras, no further financial assistance would be paid immediately to Honduras!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

He followed Tuesday night with a similar threat, but added other Central American countries to his list. "We informed today the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that, if they allowed their citizens, or other persons, to cross their borders and up to the end of the war. in the United States, with the intention of illegally entering our country, all payments that were paid to them will stop (FIN)! "he wrote.

Trump continued Wednesday about the caravan of migrants, attacking the Democrats and accusing them of not wanting to strengthen border security.

"It's hard to believe that with thousands of people from the south of the border heading unhindered to our country in the form of large caravans, Democrats will not approve a law that will authorize laws for the protection of our country, Republicans! "he wrote.

Migrants have long left Central America in large numbers, increasingly as family units, in an attempt to escape poverty and violence.

The "North Triangle" of Central America – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – is among the most violent in the world, although homicide rates have declined in recent years. Drug cartels move illegal goods into the area and street gangs control neighborhoods and regularly charge residents "rent" (a euphemism for extortion payments).

Migrant caravans meet regularly as participants seek safety in numbers. Undocumented migrants in transit in Mexico are often victims of crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and rape, often committed by gangs of criminals, drug cartels, coyotes and dishonest officials.

A caravan earlier this year also caught Trump's attention. In a series of tweets, he accused Mexico of inaction vis-à-vis irregular migrants moving in its territory, even as Mexico was operating checkpoints in its southern states. In the past five years, his immigration agency has detained and deported more Central America than the United States.

Mexican immigration officials expelled 77,371 people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in 2017, according to the Interior Ministry. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that border police arrested nearly 17,000 family members in September, an 80 percent increase over July, when the government ended its controversial practice. to separate the families at the border.

The United States has sent $ 1.1 billion in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the last two years, according to the Washington office on Latin America, a think tank. The aid has been controversial: Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has been accused of corruption and ended the work of a UN-sponsored anti-impunity commission, which has sentenced members of the the country's political class for corruption. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was controversially reelected last year in a race marred by irregularities and repression against those who protested against the result.

The Guatemalan government issued a statement on Monday stating that the caravan would be stopped, even though Central American countries have reached agreements allowing their citizens to cross borders freely.

The caravan legislator, Bartolo Fuentes, was arrested in Guatemala and reportedly returned to Honduras, Reuters reported. The caravan, however, continues to move north.

Honduras deployed police to its border with Guatemala and urged its citizens not to participate in the caravan.

Vice President Mike Pence has repeatedly warned Central Americans to stay put. Last week, he told the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America: "We need all the nations of the North Triangle region to reinforce this message: Do not put your families at risk by doing the dangerous thing. travel north to try to enter the US illegally.The truth is that if they can not come legally to the US, they should not come at all. "

According to analysts, most migrants are not dissuaded by the risk of the road and ignore the remonstrances of the US government or anti-immigrant sentiments that seem more prevalent in the country, because the situation is so terrible in their own country.

"Many Hondurans are or were leaving behind gangs or domestic violence in marginalized neighborhoods, where government services are lacking and where daily life can be controlled by the dominant gang," said Stephanie Leutert, Director from the Mexico Security Initiative at the Strauss Center of the University of Texas.

More recently, however, US Customs and Border Protection data indicate "more migrants from rural areas in western Honduras," she added.

"The factors that drive these migrants out will look different and will usually be related to agriculture – such as low world prices for commodities, including coffee – and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions," he said. she said. "These rural migrants could go to the dangerous big cities of Honduras or go to the north, and according to the data, it seems that more and more people are choosing to go to the north."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Mexico City on Friday, where he will meet with representatives of the outgoing and upcoming governments of Mexico. During the election campaign, President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office on 1 December, is committed to "doing the dirty work" of any foreign government when referring to migrants from Central America in transit through Mexican territory.

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