A new caravan of Honduran migrants travels to the United States encouraged by a change of Administration

Honduran migrants this Friday at the border post of Agua Caliente, between Honduras and Guatemala.ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP

A new caravan of Honduran migrants, made up of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, left this Friday morning from the city of San Pedro Sula, located in the southwest of the Central American country, with the hope of crossing Guatemala and Mexico on their way to the United States. United, encouraged by the arrival of Joe Biden and a possible change in immigration policies on the part of the Democrat.

The caravan had advanced at noon to the northern town of Copán, where the organizers will decide the route to take to cross into Guatemala, with two options in mind: the border posts of Aguascalientes and El Florido.

Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government has stated that it will not allow the entry of migrants and has deployed dozens of soldiers and police officers at the country's borders to prevent them from entering.

Migrants leave a country devastated by hurricanes Eta and Iota, hit by the coronavirus pandemic and suffocated by violence.

This caravan is the second to form since December, when hundreds of Hondurans left for the United States after the hurricanes, which have left tens of thousands of families without a home or livelihood.

The US embassy in Honduras has affirmed that its "partners", Mexico and Guatemala, will not allow "groups of migrant caravans to advance north in violation of sovereignty, current public health orders and immigration laws. of the respective nations throughout the region ”.

He has also warned that "our commitment to the rule of law and public health is not affected by a change of Administration in the United States."

The Government of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has deployed the military police and ordered that checkpoints be established on the route of the migrants, to prevent them from moving north.

In addition, a curfew has been established in the country.

Meanwhile, Guatemala has ordered its Army and the National Civil Police to create checkpoints on the highway to the Atlantic Ocean, after President Alejandro Giammattei decreed on Thursday the state of prevention in the departments of Izabal, Zacapa, Chiquimula, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, El Progreso and Petén.

"We beg you, Mr. President, to allow us to pass through Guatemala, we are dying of hunger," asked one of the migrants, quoted by the EFE agency.

The organizers of the caravan allege that they leave Honduras due to poverty, lack of jobs and the violence that is eating away at the country.

“They leave because they have nothing.

It is a feeling of pain, but they also carry hope, because they believe that this is the only way of salvation to be able to achieve something.

They know that there is nothing here [Honduras] and they are willing to do this great walk, ”Honduran journalist Diuna Orellana, who is following the migrant caravan, told EL PAÍS.

Orella has seen entire families leave their towns to join the group, including the elderly, children, teenage mothers with their children and young people fed up with the lack of opportunities.

Although most wear face masks, they do not have negative tests for covid-19, one of the requirements to enter Guatemala.

Testing in Honduras can cost between $ 20 and $ 150.

"The Red Cross and Doctors without Borders have said that they will facilitate rapid tests for free, so they can cross the border," explained Orellana.

The generalized sentiment, the journalist added, is one of hope for a change in immigration policies with the arrival of Biden to the White House: “There is a lot of expectation, people have hope with Biden, they feel that they can change US immigration policies.

There are people who make this trip for the second or third time.

They leave everything waiting to reach the United States. "

Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have opted for a new immigration strategy, after four years of tough immigration policies by Republican Donald Trump.

Both leaders held a conversation in mid-December, which opens a new stage between the two key countries in the management of Central American migration.

In that conversation, both politicians highlighted the need to "revitalize cooperation between the United States and Mexico to guarantee safe and orderly migration, contain the coronavirus, boost North American economies and secure the common border," according to the transition team. of the democrat.

López Obrador had already greeted Biden's position on the migration issue days before, which, he said, "will allow the plan to promote the development and well-being of the communities of southeastern Mexico and the countries of Central America to continue."

It remains to be seen what new strategies will translate into these conciliatory speeches, which for the moment generate expectations among those Central Americans with no future, either because they have lost everything due to the natural disasters that have hit the region or due to the lack of opportunities that their governments - most of them eaten away by corruption - are incapable of providing them. "My dream is to get to the United States, buy my little house because I'm bored of living renting and working for other people," Melvin Fernández, a taxi driver from the Caribbean port of La Ceiba, told AFP. "I want to work and give a decent life with my family," added the migrant, who was leaving for the United States this Friday with his wife and their three children, ages 10, 15 and 22. With them, a multitude of migrants who aspire to a change of life.