A steep mountain and a high wall flanking the rural highway allowed Guatemalan authorities to crack down on the group of about 2,000 when it invaded Guatemala on Friday night.
Their ranks narrowed with wear and tear, as some migrants agreed to be taken by bus back to the border with Honduras. A Guatemalan official repeated the offer on Monday morning, telling migrants that they had buses ready for those wishing to return to Honduras. A smaller number was sent back by force after fighting with the authorities who held their line with batons and tear gas.
The main objective of the authorities’ midday pressure was to reopen the highway. Police and soldiers hit their shock shields in an intimidating way when an officer told migrants to clear the highway. The migrants spread out, but remained in the general area.
Guatemalan immigration officials said on Monday that another group of about 800 migrants was located some 40 kilometers north along the highway near Rio Hondo. They are also prevented from moving there, but officials said they had successfully negotiated the opening of a traffic lane so that vehicles could pass.
Pedro Brolo Vila, Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Secretary, criticized the Honduran government on Monday for not doing more to deter the caravan. He said Guatemala has been preparing for this caravan since December, including meetings with peers in Honduras, Mexico and the United States.
Guatemala was “totally surprised” by Honduras’ lack of cooperation, Brolo said. He said Honduras had promised to deploy a large contingent of security forces to deter migrants from reaching Guatemala’s border. Instead, Honduran security forces accompanied migrants “towards our borders, where we regretfully saw how they entered with violence, violating Guatemala’s territorial sovereignty.”
He also said that Guatemalan authorities detected false results of the Covid-19 test among migrants who stopped to register their entry into Guatemala.
In total, it is estimated that about 8,000 to 9,000 Honduran migrants entered Guatemala in the first caravan of the year, after leaving San Pedro Sula, Honduras, early Friday. Honduras was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes that hit in November, leaving thousands homeless. This is compounded by the lack of existing economic opportunity and persistent gang violence.
In Vado Hondo Monday, the site of the roadblock outside Chiquimula, migrants leaned against the wall or sat down after a night of intermittent sleep in the bushes along the road or on the sidewalk. Some migrants returned to the city in search of food or shade to wait for the impasse.
Traffic, especially semi-trailers, was paralyzed for miles. The locals made their way through the migrants and were allowed to pass through the lines of police and soldiers.
On Sunday, the Guatemalan Ministry of Health reported that 21 of the migrants who sought medical attention at health centers had tested positive for the coronavirus. The department said the 12 men and nine women would not be returned to Honduras until they were quarantined in centers in Guatemala.
Even if the migrants manage to find their way to the Mexican border, that government is showing a show of strength with thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents waiting there.
Mexico said it would apply its immigration laws and demand an orderly crossing. A year ago, Mexican guards dismantled a large caravan in southern Mexico after migrants crossed the river that separates it from Guatemala.
“We are proposing that they seek a dialogue with migrants in Honduras, Guatemala,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday. “They must attend to them so that they do not enter by force in any country”.
The president said he also hopes to hear Biden talk about immigration in his inaugural address on Wednesday.
“I believe it is time to fulfill the commitment to carry out immigration reform,” said López Obrador.