Guatemalan officials crack down on US-bound Honduran caravan

Guatemalan authorities have cracked down on a caravan of Latin American asylum seekers headed to the United States just as a new administration is about to enter the White House.

Guatemalan authorities on Saturday escalated efforts to stop thousands of Hondurans, fleeing poverty and violence, and arrested some of them.

Videos seen by Reuters showed Guatemalan security forces clashing with the asylum seekers who managed to break through a police blockade in the village of Vado Hondo, near Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala.

“A small group got through and the rest were detained. The people who got past have been located,” said Alejandra Mena, a spokeswoman for Guatemala’s immigration agency.

As many as 9,000 Honduran asylum seekers, some of them families with children, had entered the country since Friday.

Guatemala has not said how many asylum seekers were detained on Saturday as the caravan moved towards Mexico. The caravan will also likely face new obstacles set up by security forces in Mexico.

A Mexican official warned that the country’s migration accord with the United States still holds, so the caravan would be dispersed. 

On Saturday evening, the Mexican Foreign Ministry pressed local authorities to stop the caravan, stressing the need to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the ministry praised the Guatemalan government for acting in a “firm and responsible” manner toward the asylum seekers.

The statement urged Honduran security forces to stop more asylum seekers from escaping the country, which has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes.

Mexico, it said, was committed to an orderly and regulated movement across borders and would oppose any form of unauthorized entry.

Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico have deployed thousands of security forces to deter illegal movements of people across the region.

Despite the efforts, reports said the US-bound caravan was growing due to the spiraling crisis of hunger and homelessness in Honduras.

“First, I lost my job because of the pandemic, and then I lost my home in the hurricanes,” said Honduran Melvin Paredes, who joined the caravan with his brother, adding, “The only thing I have left is to fight for my family’s survival.”

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The United States is a common destination for Latin American asylum seekers fleeing poverty and persecution.

The administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump went to great lengths to stop Latin American immigrants trying to reach the United States.

Trump, who during his tenure pursued building a huge wall on the US-Mexico border, forced US border officials to have thousands of children locked in cages at the southern border as part of his "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. 

President-elect Joe Biden, who enters office on January 20, has signaled that he would reverse some harsh aspects of Trump’s policy.

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