US agents carried out an irregular operation in Guatemala against migrants from Honduras

Agents of the United States border police deployed in Guatemala participated last January in an operation to detain a group of Honduran migrants in that Central American country and send them back to their country.

The agents were in Guatemala for training and cooperation tasks and did not have legal coverage to carry out security missions.

The operation calls into question the reality on the ground of cooperation between Central America and the United States to stop migration to the north.

The facts were revealed on Tuesday in a work report of the US Senate, advanced by

.

The United States has security forces abroad as part of cooperative programs that include the training of local police in matters such as the fight against drug trafficking.

The agents stationed in Guatemala are strictly prohibited by the State Department from participating in the security tasks of the police in those countries.

The events took place in January of this year, when a new caravan of immigrants was formed in Honduras ready to reach the Mexican border with the United States.

They crossed the border with Guatemala on January 15, according to the report.

There they met with agents from the Guatemalan border protection department (Dipafront).

US personnel assisted in the operation.

Specifically, he obtained the buses and drivers to take them back to their country and participated in the execution of the repatriation.

According to the report, they were agents of the United States Department of Borders (CBP, for its acronym in English), dependent on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

It was "a direct violation of the agreement with the State Department that also exposes the United States Government to potential legal and financial responsibilities," says the report, prepared by the Senate Democrats.

There is no other precedent in which US border agents have participated in a security operation abroad.

The operation had repercussions in the local press and on January 21 the Democrats asked the State Department.

The US foreign service responded by saying that DHS denied that the events occurred.

The Department of the Interior stated that its agents "did not participate in the action of loading Honduran migrants on buses in Guatemala back to the border."

On January 30, however, the State Department sent the Senate a correction to their responses.

"The information previously provided is not accurate," it said.

The new response admitted that the operation had taken place and that US agents had participated in it as described.

To do this, they used funds from the international anti-drug cooperation agency (INL), which is part of the State Department.

Specifically, three 12-seater coaches and their respective drivers were rented.

That same day, the government acknowledged to Senate Democrats that the operation violated the terms of the cooperation agreement and that those responsible who had authorized it had been fired and ordered to return to Washington.

The report further highlights that men were separated from women and children during the repatriation.

However, DHS has no information on whether households were separated or whether there were unaccompanied single children.

He also had no information on whether they were given the opportunity to seek asylum.

In other words, it was done "with little caution about the human rights of migrants, particularly refugees, asylum seekers and children," says the report, which is titled:

Senator Bob Menendez, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, presented the report Tuesday, calling it "explosive."

Menendez said the report “is a painful reminder of how President Trump's anti-immigrant agenda has infiltrated all the policies of this Administration.

Trying to blur the lines that separate the work of the professional diplomatic corps from that of immigration agents is corrosive and totally unacceptable ”.