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SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – The flier began circulating on social media in Honduras this month, showing the migrant sketch against a bright red backdrop.
It was a call to join a caravan, the work of leftist activists and politicians who had helped lead migrants in the past. But they also have a political spark in the mix, blaming their right-wing government for the exodus: "The violence and poverty is expelling us."
They never expected it to ignite an international firestorm.
Far from Honduras, the White House was busy grappling with the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist whose death inside a Saudi consulate had tarnished Saudi Arabia, a vital ally of the trump administration. And with the midterm elections in the United States only weeks away, President Trump was eager to change the script.
The caravan gives a new, politically beneficial story to tell. Stoking American anxieties about immigration had worked on a cornerstone of his 2016 campaign. The president's top aides, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, have been briefing the president on the caravan's progress last week, senior White House officials said.
Within days, the president began using Twitter to attack the migrants, putting the blame on Democrats and threatening to cut funding to Central American governments: "We are a great Sovereign Nation. We have Strong Borders and will never accept people coming into our country illegally! "
What started as a domestic political dispute in Honduras – an effort to undermine newly re-elected President Juan Orlando Hernandez and to call attention to the plight of migrants – soon became an international row, a source of embarrassment in Honduras, consternation across the region, and political opportunism in the United States.
Initially planned as a small caravan of a few hundred people, it grew rapidly to 7,000 as desperation, local media coverage and a swirl of domestic and American politics combined to transform it into the largest movement of migrants in Mexico. Even those who helped with the mass movement never thought it would expand so much, so fast.
"I never expected this to be so big," said Bartolo Fuentes, a migrant advocate and lawmaker who helped the caravan, which started on Oct. 13. "But it's a big way. . "
For Fuentes and Luis Redondo, a congressman, the caravan offered a perfect way to encourage migrants to travel in a large group – and attack the government at the same time.
After Honduras's divisive presidential election in November, which the Organization of American States found a problem, it was called a fraudulent vote count.
Despite the controversy, the Trump administration gave its official support to Mr. Hernandez, a loyal ally who cooperated with Americans during their first term of sale. With that, Mr. Hernandez took office, but he remained a polarizing figure accused of corruption and amassing too much power.
Mr. Hernández's administration and support of the migrants, members of the opposition started promoting the caravan as an example of what happens when a government fails its people. In Tegucigalpa, the capital, prominent member of the opposition went to the Mexican Embassy and threatened multiple travelers as long as the situation in Honduras remained the same, according to two senior Mexican officials.
"This time it will be so big when they see everyone walking, they should ask," Where are they coming from and who is responsible for so many people leaving Honduras? "Said Mr. Redondo in a Facebook post on Oct. 5 in which he shared the caravan poster. "This is a consequence of corruption, lack of security, impunity; Those responsible are the corrupt and corrupters of the national party. "
On the score, the government's opponents were successful. Mr. Trump asked that Mr. Hernandez stop the caravan, though by then the migrants were already in Guatemala, and it was unclear what Mr. Hernandez could do. Still, Mr. Trump is not turned around.
"The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that the United States is heading for the United States," Mr. Trump wrote last Monday. "No more money or help to Honduras, effective immediately!"
It seemed to panic the Honduran government. Marlon Tábora Muñoz, Representative of the Honduran Ambassador to the United States, is the Representative of the United States, and represents Representative Matt Gaetz of the Republic of Florida.
Mr. Muñoz also said that George Soros, American nonprofit groups, or a drug cartel might be helping the caravan, said Mr. Gaetz, who posted the video to Twitter, adding: "Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women and children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source! "
The claims were later debunked, and the video was not even shot in Honduras. It happened in Guatemala. Migrants in the caravan told The New York Times that the people who wanted to help them get the equivalent of about 13 to 26 cents. The migrants, who have been surviving on strangers, said they were not paid to join the caravan.
The ambassador declined to comment. But he was hardly the only person in the Honduran government looking to cast blame for the exodus on foreigners. On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence said that Honduras' president had told him that Venezuela was providing funding to support the migrants, without offering evidence. Mr. Hernández's office did not respond to requests for comment.
The political fallout of the caravan has been disastrous for Honduras. But Republicans welcomed the pivot of the Americans' attention away from the Khashoggi, which has gained traction with Mr. Trump's political base.
Newt Gingrich, the trainer and an occasional Trump adviser, was among the Republicans following the news of the caravan, as well as the global coverage remained squarely focused on Mr. Khashoggi.
Republicans hope that the increased coverage of the migrants will pick some groups, like white suburban women, to get away from Democratic candidates, especially if Mr. Trump can stoke fears about gangs and drugs, Mr. Gingrich said.
"It creates a safety factor" for those voters, he said. "If the first 7,000 to 15,000 get in, what does that send?"
Mr. Gingrich added, "Trump understands in the current American political structure you have to win polarized campaigns."
Mr. Fuentes and others had an embarrassment to their government by portraying the caravan as a powerful statement on the cost of failed domestic politics. But they accidentally overshot the mark, precipitating a regional crisis.
The coverage of the migrants and the political blowback – in Honduras and the United States – has been intense. After following the migrants into Guatemala, Mr. Fuentes was detained and sent back to Honduras, where he left the spotlight.
Mr. Fuentes said he was opposed to this government and wanted Mr. Hernández out of office. But he helped the word about the caravan because the road is dangerous, he said.
If you leave in a small group, you're heading for disaster, Mr. Fuentes said, adding that most of the migrants simply joined on their own.
Trump and the pro-government news media in Honduras, fanned the flames.
The flier and private WhatsApp groups that sprang up the country were most likely the initial sources of information for many who joined the caravan. But interviews with several dozen migrants on the runway credited to a pro-government television station with sounding the media megaphone.
The day before the caravan started, a popular program on HCH Mr. Fuentes was paying attention to the organizers and spreading disinformation about how Mr. Fuentes was paying for the migrants' food and transportation.
But the effort backfired. Far from delegitimizing the caravan by convincing the public it had political roots, the hosts inadvertently presented many Hondurans who wanted to get away from it.
Between 200 and 300 people on average leave Honduras every day, risking the journey of poverty and poverty. Since the last caravan in the spring, a devastating drought has forced even more people to ponder the uncertainty of migrating.
Olvin Alexander Martínez, 21, who worked with a palm oil company in Trujillo, said this year's yield "was not enough," a large part of his salary.
Mr. Martínez decided to join the caravan, which now includes Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Mexicans.
Franklin Barahona, 26, a Honduran migrant from La Ceiba, said he joined the caravan at the beginning, then spread the word over WhatsApp and Facebook.
Mr. Barahona and his companion companion, Flavio Williams, also said that they had been paid by the politicians and that their markets had been motivated by politics.
"The truth is, it's false, it's totally false," Mr. Williams said of the charges.
"Five thousand, 7,000 people are not going to come out of their lives just because of politics, much less their children's, their wives – they're not going to do it because of politics," he added.
