Groups of Nicaraguans and Hondurans arrived at the Guatemalan border on Saturday.
However, they were blocked from passing by Guatemalan security services, marking the first such migration caravan to organize in Central America this year, with its sights set on the United States.
According to a video released by Guatemalan police, several migrants at the Izabel border checkpoint hurled items at Guatemalan security personnel, who forced them backward with riot shields.
Mass Migration
The caravan started just a few days before Honduran President-elect and leftist socialist Xiomara Castro will enter office on January 27th.
In her campaign for president, she has pledged to revitalize the economy and battle corruption, which she says are fueling surges of mass movement into the United States.
Hundreds of U.S.-bound migrants in caravan stuck at Guatemala border https://t.co/x8cu8TlXDu pic.twitter.com/xtVqKMe6C5
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 16, 2022
They left a bus station in San Pedro previously in the day for the Honduran border checkpoint of Corinto, located across the river from Izabel.
The migrants were primarily youngsters with backpacks on their shoulders and mothers when they left the bus terminal. Some people were pushing babies in strollers.
“There isn’t any job,” Pablo Mendez, a Honduran who was holding his 2-year-old daughter in his arms, explained. He went on to explain it was is for this reason that people are departing in the caravan.
Many people were crossing major highways on foot, as seen in video footage from Reuters. This showed big groups of hundreds strolling throughout San Pedro. Another party left in the dark at the crack of dawn the day before.
Authorities’ Actions Across B
Guatemalan police first stated about 100 people entered the country through illicit border crossings, but subsequently clarified 36 of those individuals had been repatriated to Honduras.
Some 300 migrants, mainly Hondurans and Nicaraguans, arrived in Corinto, Honduras Saturday afternoon and crossed into the Guatemalan border province of Izabal, where they were met by hundreds of anti-riot agents from the national police and army.
— Newsmax (@newsmax) January 16, 2022
Previously, Honduran authorities set up barricades to prevent a large number of similar caravans from making it to the international border crossing.
Guatemalan security personnel has also come into conflict with migrant groups that attempted to push their way across the border without proper documentation.
The arrival of the first caravan of the year comes after a period of severe economic suffering and poverty that has affected 62 percent of the Honduran population.
This is exacerbated by the coronavirus epidemic and two consecutive storms in 2020 that hampered the economy.
Political clampdowns by President Daniel Ortega’s regime before and after the November 7 presidential elections resulted in a significant increase in the migrant population in Nicaragua.
In his interview with The Huffington Post, Nicaraguan migrant Euclides Mendes expressed optimism that the dangerous road ahead would be safe because of the bulk of the caravan.
He stated that it is true they will be walking a lot, but they will get there; the most important thing is they reach the finish line, emphasizing the importance of finishing the journey.
