Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dissuaded at Guatemala border
Others continue their trek north, despite Guatemala’s threats
MORALES, Guatemala — Threats from Guatemala’s president to deport migrants who entered the country illegally led dozens of migrants to begin the journey back to Honduras on Friday even as hundreds more continued trudging toward Mexico.
“The dream is over for the moment,” said Edwin Pineda, who waited for a bus Friday that would return his family to Honduras. He was traveling with his wife, 4-year-old son and father-in-law, but two days of walking and already depleted funds made him reconsider.
Others pushed on, beginning their walk before sunrise. Guatemala immigration authorities said the migrants had split between two routes with about 700 traveling north to Peten aboard trucks and minibuses, and 400 walking and taking buses west toward the capital. Another 800 were still walking in small groups toward the point where the routes diverge.
In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested Friday that the estimated 2,000 migrants who set out from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, had perhaps been organized with the coming U.S. elections in mind.
The new group was reminiscent of a migrant caravan that formed two years ago shortly before U.S. midterm elections. It became a hot issue in the campaign, fueling rhetoric against illegal immigration.
On Thursday, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei vowed to return the migrants to Honduras, citing efforts to contain the pandemic.
“The order has been given to detain all those who entered illegally, and return them to the border of their country,” Giammattei said in a broadcast address to the nation. “We will not allow any foreigner who has used illegal means to enter the country, to think that they have the right to come and infect us and put us at serious risk.”
Giammattei issued an order that would suspend some constitutional rights in the provinces they were expected to pass through, apparently to facilitate detaining them.
On Friday morning, most of those leaving appeared to be doing so voluntarily, in some cases accepting rides back to the border from authorities in patrol vehicles and army trucks.
At one point near Morales, Guatemala, a soldier with a megaphone told migrants that it was dangerous for them to continue and some voluntarily climbed aboard. Guatemala’s immigration agency reported Friday that 108 migrants had voluntarily agreed to return to Honduras. Another 25 unaccompanied minors were in the care of social services.
Guatemala had just reopened its borders, closed for months because of the pandemic, in September. About 2,000 migrants pushed their way through border guards into Guatemala on Thursday.
Honduran migrants said they had decided to leave when they saw calls on social media for a new caravan to depart Oct. 1. But the factors that have pushed them to migrate remain the same. The pandemic has plunged an already struggling economy deeper into trouble. Migrants said they couldn’t find work, and those who had jobs before lost them when the pandemic struck. They felt forced to leave to provide for their families.
Migrant caravans from Central America gained popularity in recent years because they provided some degree of safety in numbers and allowed those who couldn’t afford to pay a smuggler to attempt the trip to the United States.
Last year, however, President Donald Trump threatened crippling tariffs on Mexican imports if that government did not slow the flow of migrants to the U.S. border. Mexico responded by deploying the National Guard and more immigration agents to intercept large groups of migrants.