At the end of last week, the migrant caravan left Honduras in several columns and crossed the border between Honduras and Guatemala jointly on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, about 30 km from the border, the Guatemalan Police and Army surrounded the migrants and blocked their route. Attempts by those who tried to overcome the blockade were brutally rejected. Some of the caravan members have dispersed and some of the thousands, according to some sources, are still in place.

Fleeing poverty

“The Army is paralysing the migrant caravan. They are Hondurans fleeing violence, poverty, the impact of the pandemic and two hurricanes,” journalist Iñigo Herraiz wrote on Twitter. To the poverty and structural violence in Honduras, we must add in November the disaster caused by hurricanes Eta and Lota in the country and the consequences of COVID-19. The participants include entire families, including boys and girls. Since 2018, about a dozen caravans of this kind have left Honduras to try to reach the United States.

According to Herraiz, there are few migrants who have so far overcome the blockade and managed to reach the border with Mexico. At the border are awaited by the Mexican National Guard, which has been sent to them by the Mexican Government to prevent the passage of migrants. The Basque journalist Alberto Pradilla, who works in Mexico, has assured that the Mexican government has sent four police buses to Guatemala to “help migrants return to Honduras. International cooperation to prevent the poor from fleeing misery.”