A steep mountain and tall wall flanking the agricultural freeway have allowed Guatemalan authorities to bottle up the group that had numbered abou
A steep mountain and tall wall flanking the agricultural freeway have allowed Guatemalan authorities to bottle up the group that had numbered about 2,000 when it pushed into Guatemala Friday night time.
Their ranks have decreased by means of attrition as some migrants have agreed to be bused again to the Honduran border. A Guatemalan official repeated that provide Monday morning, telling the migrants that they had buses on the prepared for individuals who needed to return to Honduras. A smaller quantity have been forcefully despatched again after struggling with authorities who held their line with baton strikes and tear fuel.
The first of goal of the authorities’ noon push was to reopen the freeway. Police and troopers banged their riot shields intimidatingly as an official advised the migrants to clear the freeway. The migrants scattered, however remained within the basic space.
Guatemala’s immigration authorities mentioned Monday that one other group of about 800 migrants had been situated about 25 miles (40 kilometers) farther north alongside the freeway close to Rio Hondo. They’re additionally blocked from advancing there, however authorities mentioned they efficiently negotiated opening one lane of visitors so automobiles may move.
Pedro Brolo Vila, Guatemala‘s international affairs secretary, criticized Honduras’ authorities Monday for not doing extra to dissuade the caravan. He mentioned Guatemala had been making ready since December for this caravan, together with conferences with their counterparts in Honduras, Mexico and the USA.
Guatemala was “completely shocked” by Honduras’ lack of cooperation, Brolo mentioned. He mentioned Honduras had promised to place out a big contingent of safety forces to dissuade the migrants from reaching Guatemala’s border. As a substitute, Honduran safety forces accompanied the migrants “towards our borders the place regrettably we noticed how they entered violently, violating Guatemala’s territorial sovereignty.”
He additionally mentioned Guatemalan authorities had detected faux Covid-19 take a look at outcomes among the many migrants who stopped to register their entrance to Guatemala.
In whole, some 8,000 to 9,000 Honduran migrants had been believed to have entered Guatemala within the yr’s first caravan after departing from San Pedro Sula, Honduras early Friday. Honduras has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic and two main hurricanes that struck in November, leaving hundreds homeless. That’s on high of the prevailing lack of financial alternative and chronic gang violence.
In Vado Hondo Monday, website of the roadblock exterior Chiquimula, migrants leaned in opposition to the wall or sat up after a fitful night time’s sleep within the brush alongside the highway or on the pavement. Some migrants had drifted again to the city seeking meals or shade to attend out the stalemate.
Site visitors, particularly semi-trailers, had been backed up for miles. Locals picked their method among the many migrants and had been allowed to move the traces of police and troopers.
On Sunday, Guatemala’s Well being Ministry reported that 21 of the migrants who sought medical consideration at well being facilities had examined optimistic for the coronavirus. The division mentioned the 12 males and 9 girls wouldn’t be returned to Honduras till they bear quarantine at facilities in Guatemala.
Even when the migrants handle to seek out their strategy to the Mexican border, that authorities has made a present of power with hundreds of Nationwide Guard members and immigration brokers ready there.
Mexico has mentioned it could implement its immigration legal guidelines and require an orderly crossing. One yr in the past, Mexican guardsmen broke up a big caravan in southern Mexico after the migrants forded the river that divides it from Guatemala.
“We’re proposing that they search a dialogue with the migrants, in Honduras, Guatemala,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned Monday. “They need to attend to them in order that they don’t enter any nation by power.”
The president mentioned he additionally hopes to listen to Biden tackle immigration in his inauguration speech Wednesday.
“I imagine that the time has come to comply with by means of on the dedication to hold out immigration reform,” López Obrador mentioned.