Honduras, Guatemala move to stop migrant caravan

WASHINGTON/ESQUIPULAS: The organiser of a migrant caravan from Honduras was detained in Guatemala yesterday as the US Government threatened to withdraw aid from both countries and El Salvador if the flow of migrants north to the United States was not stopped.

Up to 3000 migrants, according to organisers’ estimates, crossed from Honduras into Guatemala on a trek northward after a standoff on Tuesday with police in riot gear.

The Honduran Foreign Ministry called on its citizens not to join the group. The Government ‘‘urges the Hondurans taking part in this irregular mobilisation not to be used by a movement that is clearly political,’’ it said.

Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez said in a public address yesterday some Hondurans in the caravan had already returned home and the Government was preparing to support them. He did not specify how many had turned back.

Over the border, Guatemalan police officers detained Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran politician, from the middle of the large crowd he and three other organisers had led from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, since Sunday.

The moves followed comments by US President Donald Trump that his Administration would halt aid if the Central American governments did not act, his latest effort to demonstrate his tough stance on immigration.

The Honduran security ministry said Fuentes had been detained because he ‘‘did not comply with Guatemalan immigration rules’’ and would be deported back to Honduras.