Blocked and then dispersed by the police after only fifty kilometers in Guatemalan territory, thousands of Honduran migrants eager to walk to the United States saw their dream of exile stopped by force.
Like more than the dozen migrant caravans that have left Honduras since October 2018, the latter, launched in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, will not achieve its objective.
Neither should see the much-desired border between Mexico and the United States.
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Departing Friday from San Pedro Sula, industrial heart and economic engine of Honduras, some 9,000 Hondurans candidates for exodus were stopped for the first time Sunday in Vado Hondo, in eastern Guatemala, by a large police and military device.
With tear gas and batons, the security forces slowed down the caravan, while a decree from President Alejandro Giammattei authorized the use of force because of the risk of epidemic contagion.
On Monday, the 4,000 migrants who had remained stationed on a border road, blocking the transit of goods since Saturday, were dispersed by new tear gas shots launched by riot police.
The road was thus cleared to absorb the huge line of freight trucks that had formed on this border axis between Guatemala and Honduras.
Between stone throws and tear gas, a woman carrying her young son told, breathlessly, on the Guatevision channel, having left Honduras where she has
"nowhere to live".
“If we had the money to live on, we wouldn't be here trying to go north.
They treat us like dogs, it shouldn't be like that, ”
lamented another mother holding a little girl in her arms.
In addition to the 4,000 migrants who spent the night on the ground, others had already dispersed across the country while more than 1,500, including 208 children, have already returned to Honduras, migration authorities said.
All had entered Guatemala between Friday evening and Saturday morning, at the El Florido border post, 220 kilometers east of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.
The decision to let them pass was taken because of the presence of many families with children, according to a police official.
But the Guatemalan authorities had announced the obligation for all migrants to submit legal documents and a negative PCR test.
According to the Ministry of Health, 21 migrants have tested positive for coronavirus and placed in isolation.
"Dialogue"
The candidates for the
“American dream”
invoke their economic situation in Honduras (9 million inhabitants), subjected to the violence of gangs and drug traffickers.
A situation that has deteriorated further with the passage of two powerful hurricanes in November and the consequences of the pandemic. Many people want to believe that Democrat Joe Biden, who will be invested on Wednesday, will ease the migration policy of the United States, even if Washington has already warned them not to waste
"time"
or
"money".
Outgoing President Donald Trump on Friday declared a state of emergency on the border with Mexico, a measure first taken in February 2019. The Mexican government also said it would not allow
"illegal entry »
Migrant caravans.
About 500 Mexican agents have been deployed to the border states of Chiapas and Tabasco, along with buses to bring migrants back to Honduras.
On Monday, the President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called for dialogue to avoid new clashes:
"we are making proposals to seek dialogue with migrants (...) We must take care of them so that they do not 'enter no country by force
,' he told reporters.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has expressed its
“concern”
about the use of force to stop the march of migrants.
Honduras has also complained about the way its citizens have been treated by its neighbor.
Guatemala denounced it a violation of its national sovereignty and urged Honduras to
"contain the mass departure of its inhabitants".
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