Guatemalan troops used tear gas to overwhelm the caravan of almost 8000 Honduran migrants making their way to the United States through Guatemala and Mexico.
The Guatemalan government decided to use force in the effort to turn back the migrants to Honduras, claiming that they could neither cross the border with Mexico nor stay in Guatemala without the required valid negative COVID-19 tests. Having reached Guatemala on their way to the US, the troops dispersed the caravan of about 8000 Hondurans and forced over 2300 back to their country of origin. The remainder dispersed throughout Guatemala and will undoubtedly try to reach Mexico in smaller groups. At the same time, another caravan of migrants is on its way to Guatemala and it is expected to arrive within days.
The action taken by Guatemalan security forces was praised and supported by the Mexican government as the country prepared to protect its borders against newcomers. Earlier, the Mexican Secretary for Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling on Honduran officials to halt the illegal wave of migration from their country. The statement was supported by Guatemalan officials, having warned that they would not allow newcomers to cross the border even before they reached Guatemala and having tried to force the Honduran government to address this issue.
The caravan of Honduran migrants was formed at the beginning of December 2020 in San Pedro Sula. Desperate people decided to leave their country to escape extreme hunger and the alarming levels of violence which had swelled during the pandemic. The situation got worse after the two hurricanes, ETA and Iota, have recently devastated Central America and forced even more people to flee in desperation. Many migrants are reported to have no other choice as they have no employment nor any chance to find work in their home country.
The migrants declared that the situation in their country was so bad that the only option was to try to reach the US to cross the border and seek asylum.
Their actions were also encouraged by the political change in Washington D.C. Whereas the Trump administration was reluctant to entertain newcomers from Central America and conducted a very strict immigration policy, the election of the Democrat, Joe Biden, gave new hope to thousands of poor and terrorized Central American families. Some of the first decisions taken by Biden were connected to the migration policy and the reversal of decisions made earlier by Donald Trump. Biden signed a decree confirming the withdrawal from building the wall on the Mexican border and the lifting of the entry ban for migrants from some Arabic countries. However, the Central American caravan approaching the US borders may be the first serious challenge for the foreign policy of the new administration.
