Like every morning, very early, the doorbell of the house of the migrant from Esquipulas, in Guatemala, begins to ring.
The first travelers arrive with disjointed faces, tired, hungry and asking for a place to take refuge for a few hours or a night.
Most of them come from Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Cuba or Venezuela, but you can also find the occasional African and Pakistani.
The Esquipulas house is a safe transit home for thousands of people who cross Guatemala on their way to Mexico or the United States, but it is also a stopover for those who decide to return to their country and abandon the American dream.
This temporary reception center is located just 12 kilometers from the border with Honduras and provides medical services, accommodation, food and, above all, an active listening for all those who arrive.
The team that works there is barely enough to be able to attend to the large flow of people who ask for shelter every day as they pass by.
The number of people from Central America who transit to the north of the continent has increased significantly over the last 30 years, by 137% between 1990 and 2020: from 6.82 million to almost 16.2 million, according to United Nations data.
The hands of a single cook prepare three meals for more than a hundred people, while the person in charge of reception does not stop registering all those who arrive, the vast majority of groups of five or six, families and caravans of up to 20 individuals .
In recent months, there has been so much coming and going that the house is almost doubled in capacity and the chapel has had to be converted into a dormitory with mats on the floor to accommodate the last arrivals each afternoon.
One of the rules is that they cannot stay more than one or two nights;
however, we found several who have been there for five days and still don't know where to go.
Migrate without return
Josué, just 21 years old, has been in the shelter for more than four days with his wife and seven-year-old son.
Without work and welcomed by some friends, this couple made the decision to leave Honduras a week ago.
They managed to enter Guatemala through one of the blind spots on the mountain to avoid the border post and set course for a better future.
On the way they were robbed and the few belongings they had were taken from them, including documentation and a mobile phone.
He says that the first night they had to take shelter under a bridge near the river, but now they feel happy because at least they have a mattress to sleep on and a plate of food a day.
This couple is lost and not knowing where to go.
The only solution is to walk 200 kilometers to the capital, since they do not have any economic resources that would allow them to buy three bus tickets and the investment of paying the police at the checkpoints to let them pass.
In fear and confusion, this couple sees only the possibility of staying in Guatemala, finding a job and moving on with their lives.
More united and in love than ever, Josué and Karen only want to work and give their son a future.
This one, with signs of malnutrition, has not yet set foot in a school and does not know how to read or write.
Many of those who arrive at this shelter have just started the journey;
while others have already been on the road for weeks and months.
Like Ezequiel and Grecia, a Venezuelan couple who have fled their country with their two teenage daughters: Paola, 16, and María Alejandra, 13. Their goal is to get to the United States so that the girls can study.
Meanwhile, some volunteers register them and prepare a snack for them.
Guatemala ranks fifth among the most corrupt countries in Latin America and 25th worldwide in 2021
Paola tells me with a tired face that she wants to study medicine.
Ezequiel, proud of his girls, points out that they are both very good students and that they will be whatever they want to be.
On the contrary, Grecia asks the doctor to see her, because she has suffered a fall when they were crossing the mountain, her ankle is swollen and it is difficult for her to walk.
But this setback means nothing to them, since the most difficult section has been crossing the Darién jungle as it passes through Colombia and Panama.
For a father like Ezequiel, this jungle has been as close to hell as he has ever been: a total of 10 days walking through mud, lifeless bodies and armed groups, make this Venezuelan breathless for a few seconds .
With tears in his eyes, he looks up at the sky and thanks God because his daughters were not raped along the way like so many others.
Around six in the afternoon, a patrol car from the PNC (National Civil Police) parks in front of the house, comes to drop off four Haitian women with a baby and two girls, five and six years old.
This group had left the house the night before for the capital.
On their way down the road they had dealt with several police checkpoints, but this last one they have not been able to avoid.
With 150 dollars less in their pockets and back, they will spend the night in the shelter again waiting for a remittance to be able to buy another bus ticket.
His other option, start walking again.
A business that no one is willing to abandon
Guatemala ranks fifth among the most corrupt countries in Latin America and 25th worldwide in 2021, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
With a weakened rule of law and a debated democracy that allows impunity and that independent justice does not advance, cases of corruption end up becoming culture and custom.
It is difficult in a country like Guatemala to talk about human rights and even less about the rights of migrants.
The denunciation is almost impossible and the non-existent mechanisms.
On the route from the east of the country to Mexico, migrants must prepare their bags to pay the numerous police checkpoints along the way.
Bus drivers, taxi drivers or coyotes and many others profit from the need and desperation of these people, creating a network of coordination with police institutions to get a slice.
Every day, a total of between four and five checkpoints are established on the highway that connects Esquipulas with Guatemala City.
Depending on the nationality, the cost to pass without being returned to the Honduran border is between 10 and 15 dollars (eight to 12 euros).
In many cases, this mechanism usually works, however, in many others, migrants not only have to pay, but are deported.
It is difficult in a country like Guatemala to talk about human rights and even less about the rights of migrants
Estefanía, Bárbara and Carolina are three Venezuelan women sheltered in the Esquipulas migrant house.
Angry and upset, they want to report his situation.
With video in hand, Carolina shows how the police have extorted them and returned them to the Honduran border, interrupting their path to their destination.
Carolina, 42, is traveling with her daughter Cristina, 17, and Jacinto, another young Venezuelan they have met along the way.
With a comfortable life in Venezuela, two apartments and a drugstore, this woman sold all her properties for $3,000 to head to the United States, where a friend of hers lives.
Carolina says that her current salary in Venezuela does not exceed four dollars and that she can no longer support her family.
It's half past eight in the evening, the lights are already off and everyone is resting in their rooms.
But Estefanía, Bárbara and Carolina insist on denouncing what happened.
Ángel, the lawyer of the group he accompanies, gives in to process a request for a complaint to the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman.
After more than an hour of interview and discussion, the complaint is filed;
however, we all know that it will be of little use.
Well, illicit charges and obstacles to migrants will continue to occur day after day.
María Carmona
is a volunteer of the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development (AECID) in Guatemala.