[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to withdraw funds and help from Honduras when he did not arrest a caravan of people heading to the United States in part of his latest attempts to show his government's tough stance on immigration.
Some 3,000 migrants left Honduras on Monday for Guatemala, after a police clash in riot gear and warnings from Washington that migrants should not attempt to enter the United States illegally.
"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 said on Twitter.
It was not clear how Honduras could control people who had already left the country.
The crowd has more than doubled since Saturday, as some 1,300 people left northern Honduras as part of the "Migrant March," an organizer said.
Migrants intend to seek refugee status in Mexico or go through the United States, claiming that they are fleeing poverty and drug-related violence in their country.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the number of participants, but footage showed a group carrying backpacks and cluttered roads near the border, some waving the Honduran flag.
Trump's administration is increasingly encouraging poor Central American countries, to which thousands of migrants have fled in recent years, to do more to combat mass migration.
Guatemala said Sunday in a statement that it neither promoted nor supported "illegal immigration". Guatemalan police initially prevented migrants from going to a customs post, according to Reuters footage. The group finally managed to cross, said march organizer Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran lawmaker.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said the cut in US support for Central America last month would hinder efforts to curb illegal immigration.
In an interview with Reuters, Hernandez lamented that previous US commitments to increase investment in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have been reduced since Trump took office.
China strengthens its ties with Central America. In August, El Salvador broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan for China, citing economic reasons and moving closer to Panama in 2017.
Honduras is one of the few countries that still maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
(Report by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Frank Jack Daniel in Mexico City, edited by Bernadette Baum, Susan Thomas and Frances Kerry)
