Guatemala transports more migrants back to Honduras; small groups advance towards Mexico

A formerly large caravan of Honduran migrants that made its way to Guatemala last week dissipated on Tuesday in front of Guatemalan security forces. Small groups headed towards the Mexican border, while others accepted a ride from the authorities back to Honduras.

Many of the migrants were driven by an increasingly desperate situation in Honduras, where the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes in November accumulated over chronic poverty and gang violence. This, combined with the hope that President-elect Joe Biden’s new US administration would be more welcoming, gave rise to the first caravan of the year.

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But on Tuesday, buses carrying dozens of migrants and police patrol vehicles with handfuls arrived sporadically during the morning at the El Florido intersection between Guatemala and Honduras. They were passed from Guatemalan border agents to their Honduran counterparts and then boarded buses that would take them back to their hometowns.

About 25 miles in Guatemala, where hundreds of migrants stood at a roadblock in Vado Hondo for several days, traffic flowed smoothly on Tuesday and few migrants remained. Guatemalan immigration authorities reported that as of Monday, more than 2,300 migrants had been returned to Honduras.

Carlos Hernandez, a 29-year-old Honduran shoemaker, sat on the side of the road, unable to move forward and without reason to return.

“I lost everything, children, home, everything,” Hernández said through tears in reference to hurricanes. “Everyone died there, I have nothing. Who am I going to go back to?”

Eber Sosa, an 18-year-old bricklayer, expressed the hope of many that something would change with the new United States government.

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“Now that the new president (Biden) is here, we are waiting for the answer, all of us immigrants who have come from Honduras,” said Sosa. “We are waiting to see what the new president says to move on.”

If the Guatemalan government had really dissolved the first caravan of the year, it would have been a relief for the new United States government. Biden has promised immigration reform, but for now plans to leave Trump-era border policies in place for fear of an increase in migrants when he takes office.

The Guatemalan government made it clear that it would stop the caravan for immigration and health reasons before it even formed in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, last week. President Alejandro Giammattei said 2,000 police and soldiers would be sent to the border.

These forces did not stop the caravan at the border, but a series of strategically placed road blocks where the forces deployed tear gas and batons dissolved the mass of people.

On Tuesday, Michael Kozak, acting deputy secretary of the US Department of State’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau, praised Guatemala via Twitter for “fulfilling its responsibilities by responding appropriately and legally to the recent migrant caravan.”

Central American migrants began to increasingly resort to caravans as a low-cost alternative to hiring a smuggler in 2018. Migrants gain a certain degree of security in number and initially moved successfully through Guatemala and Mexico. However, the US government has spearheaded an effort to coordinate a more aggressive response from countries along the way to try to stop them from going too far.

Caravans still represent only a fraction of the overall immigration flow that moves undetected.

Last year, Guatemala became a critical bulwark against caravans, spurred on by the Trump administration’s more aggressive immigration policies. Guatemalan forces effectively dissolved several migrant caravans in the past year.

In Tecun Uman, across the Suchiate River from Mexico, Rev. Fernando Cuevas said on Tuesday that there were no more than 70 migrants in the border city. Those who arrive do so in small groups, mainly family units, and try to cross into Mexico almost immediately.

Some go to the bridge to ask for asylum, while others try to cross the river.

Where hundreds of migrants flocked last January before crossing to Mexico, this time Guatemala’s roadblocks seem to have stopped. Most of those who made it through carry the necessary proof of a negative coronavirus test and passports, Cuevas said.

Cuevas said that both sides of the river are militarized. In Tecun Uman, Guatemala sent a large number of national police officers who transformed a local community center into their barracks and patrolled the streets in search of migrants. Two Mexican government buses are standing in the central square in front of his church, waiting to take migrants back to the border with Honduras, he said.

“We are seeing a slightly different situation from other years, when migrants had free access and transit,” said Cuevas. His church had prepared for the arrival of migrants as a year before, but now he hopes that few will survive. “We don’t expect them to be in large numbers or organized. We don’t expect more than 100 to be here at once.”

Mexico sent thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents to that border last week in preparation. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised to respect human rights, but also to guarantee orderly and legal migration.

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A year ago, Mexican forces with riot gear arrested hundreds of Central American migrants when they stopped to rest along a rural highway after crossing into the country.

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Associated Press journalist Oliver de Ros reported this story in El Florido and AP writer Christopher Sherman reported from Mexico City.