New caravans leave Honduras to pursue American dream

Hundreds of asylum-seekers are forming migrant caravans in Honduras, planning to walk through Central America to the US.

A family joins the caravan in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Picture: AFP

Hundreds of asylum-seekers are forming new migrant caravans in Honduras, planning to walk thousands of kilometres through Central America to the US via Guatemala and Mexico, in search of a better life under the new administration of Joe Biden.

A first group of about 300 set out at dawn on Thursday from San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, headed for Corinto, on the border with Guatemala, some 100km northwest.

Travelling in small groups, some bearing the Honduran flag, most of the migrants wore face masks to protect against the coronavirus. Another 3000 were to meet at San Pedro Sula on Thursday evening to leave in the small hours for Corinto or Agua Caliente elsewhere on the border, 260km away. The migrants say they are escaping poverty, unemployment and gang violence, as well as the aftermath of two hurricanes that hit the country last November.

The country has mobilised 7000 police to supervise the migrants on their journey to the Guatemalan border.

“We are fleeing poverty. I have not had a job since March, when the pandemic began,” said Jessenia Ramirez, 36, who had worked as a restaurant cook and leaves behind her husband and three children in hopes of being able to better provide for them.

But in a message to the group, Mark Morgan, acting Commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection, warned them not to “waste your time and money”.

“The dangerous journey both puts you in harm’s way and endangers the lives and health of those in the US and regional countries through the potential spread of COVID-19,” he said.

The US commitment to the “rule of law and public health” was not affected by a change in the administration, he stressed, and migrant caravans would not be allowed to go north. He said more than 250 bodies were recovered along the border last year.

Honduras police chief Julian Hernandez said organised crime was promoting the caravans. “It is sad to see these families leave with hope of improving their living conditions, at the risk of falling into the hands of these criminals,” he said.

More than a dozen migrant caravans have set off from Honduras since October 2018 — at least four of them with 3000 people each. But all have run up against thousands of US border guards and soldiers positioned on Mexico’s southern border. Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras have an agreement with the US to stop northbound migratory flows from the south of the continent. Guatemala on Friday declared seven departments in a state of “prevention” as the massing continued. The decree cited concern for the “safety of the inhabitants” of departments through which the caravan would transit, and gave security forces the authority to “forcibly dissolve any type of public meeting or demonstration” held without authorisation.

Mr Biden has promised “a fair and humane immigration system” and pledged aid to tackle the root causes of poverty and violence that drive Central Americans to the US. US President Donald Trump froze a $US750m aid package agreed to by Barack Obama.

Mr Trump has called immigrants from Mexico “rapists” who were “bringing drugs” and other criminal activity to the US.

Guatemala’s government has warned that anyone wanting to pass through its territory must show a negative coronavirus test and have their papers in order. Mexico’s consulate in San Pedro Sula, from where caravans usually leave, warned that its government “does not encourage and will not allow the illegal entry of caravans.”

AFP