As migrant caravan heads north, Trump warns of cutting aid to Honduras
Migrants from Honduras are sitting in a caravan after the Guatemalan police stopped them after crossing the border on Tuesday.
ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala – A caravan of Central American immigrants traveling northbound in buses and on foot Tuesday provoked the ire of President Donald Trump, who threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Honduras if the group was not stopped.
Trump said via Twitter that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez had been warned about the group of roughly 2,000 asylum seekers and economic migrants.
“The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!” Trump tweeted.
The caravan departed Saturday from the violence-plagued city of San Pedro Sula, two days after Vice President Mike Pence prevailed on the leaders of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens not to enter the United States illegally.
The group arrived at the Guatemalan border Monday. After a two-hour standoff, its members, who far outnumbered the police and immigration officials there, were allowed to cross. They spent the night in the small town of Esquipulas, about an hour north of the border, and on Tuesday were continuing north.
It was unclear how Trump expected Honduras to stop the caravan. Hernandez did not immediately respond to Trump’s tweet.
The U.S. gave Honduras more than $180 million in aid in 2017 for a range of programs designed to improve security and combat poverty and drug trafficking, according to the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. Those funds are appropriated by Congress.
It was also unclear how Guatemala would respond to the caravan. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, who is seeking U.S. support in his efforts to shut down a U.n.-backed anti-corruption body that is investigating him and several family members, has sought to curry favor with Trump.
On Tuesday, Guatemalan authorities arrested Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran congressman who had been acting as a spokesman for the caravan. It was unclear what charges, if any, Fuentes faced.
In April, another caravan that originated in Honduras provoked a series of tweets from Trump, who said the participants posed a threat and who sent National Guard troops to the border in response. Many participants of that caravan, which included large numbers of women and children, eventually turned themselves over to border authorities and asked for political asylum.
Similar caravans were organized in previous years but traveled largely without interference by authorities. The caravans are designed to help protect immigrants from the dangers of the migrant trail, which include robberies, rapes and assaults perpetrated by smugglers, cartel members and even some immigration and law enforcement authorities.
The latest caravan includes people fleeing violence, poverty and political repression.
Elsa Medina Santos said she joined the caravan with her husband after she had received death threats in connection to a land dispute in the municipality of El Progreso. The couple fled to another part of Honduras last year after another woman involved in the dispute was killed.
Medina said that she filed police reports with authorities, but that there was no progress on the case. She and her husband decided to leave Honduras because they believed it was unsafe.