A new migrant caravan: 2,000 Honduran migrants traveling toward Mexico

World Today

A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., holds a baby carriage in QuezaltepequeA Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., holds a baby carriage in Quezaltepeque, Guatemala October 16, 2018. (REUTERS/Edgard Garrido)

Roughly 2000 Honduran migrants are making their way toward Mexico, fleeing violence and poverty in search of a better life. The U.S. has threatened to pull financial support for Honduras if the migrants continue their journey north.

The organizer of the caravan was reportedly detained in Guatemala for violating immigration rules and will be returned to Honduras.

CGTN’s Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City.

An estimated 2,000 Honduran migrants entered Guatemala on Monday, quickly met by Guatemalan immigration officials and eventually allowed in.

“All Central Americans can travel and enter into any other country in the region, as long as they have gone through immigration control,” according to police.

But other checkpoints await on their way to the United States. The next is the border with Mexico.

“We’re asking the government of Guatemala and Mexico to open their doors so we can enter with no problems, with no motive,” migrant Luis Eduardo Robles said. “We’re not going to rob or kill. We’re going for a better life for all our families and ourselves.”

People of all ages – including babies – are involved in the exodus from violence and poverty in the Central American nation.

“There’s much corruption here in Honduras. We want to work, there is none. We want land to plant bananas, plantains, beans, there isn’t any, brother,” migrant Esdras Mejia explained. “In the hospitals there is no security. There is nothing. Our patients die, brother.”

This past spring, a caravan of Central American immigrants seeking a better life and an escape from violence captured global attention. U.S. President Donald Trump saw it as a challenge to his administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

“If they feel the separation, in many cases they don’t come,” Trump said of the new caravan. “But, also in many cases, you have really bad people coming in and using children. They’re not their children. They don’t even know the children.”

 As the caravan moves toward the Mexican border, the Hondurans are trying to convince border officials to open the doors to their nation and their hearts.

Mexican officials have in the past granted caravans of Central American immigrants safe entry and passage through this country, but they say that will not happen this time.