More than 2,000 migrants abandoned their attempt to succeed in the United States on Saturday after Guatemala threatened to deport them for fear of spreading the Covid-19.
The group, made up mainly of Hondurans who left San Pedro Sula last Thursday, has asked the local government to return home, informed the media of the guatemalan president’s workplace.
An AFP journalist saw some being loaded into army trucks for the return journey.
But some small teams have said they remain committed to getting the United States out of poverty and violence in its home countries.
At the end of Thursday, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei ordered the arrest and return of Hondurans to their homes, however, he suggested that they return voluntarily.
“In the midst of the existing fitness emergency, not only have the country’s entry measures not been met, but also the fitness measures in place for our citizens,” he said.
Guatemalan authorities said some 3,000 more people crossed the border first without undergoing the Covid-19 test, which is mandatory for foreigners entering the country, as many did not wear masks.
Giammattei said that “a large organization of Hondurans violently broke into the country about three hundred kilometers (190 miles) northeast of Guatemala City.
The caravan once separated in Guatemala, a larger one taking a highway from the north to Mexico and the smaller one following a southwestern route.
– ‘Broken Dreams’ –
Mexico had deployed troops and immigration officials on border matters to block the caravan.
“I’m very frustrated. Because we left home with a goal, to get to America. And when we meet at home, our dreams have shattered,” migrant Blas Escobar told the AFP.
“I’m like this because I got here, I wasted my time and the little money I had,” added Eduardo Rodriguez, who hurt his foot when he fell out of a moving van.
Both had tried to succeed on the mexican border through Petén department and had already traveled more than 250 kilometers on foot or by truck.
In recent years, thousands of Central American migrants traveling in giant teams have entered Mexico in an effort to succeed on the U. S. border.
The caravan had left just a month before the U. S. presidential election, in which President Donald Trump, whose hard line against migrants is a central component of his political platform, has a mandate at the moment.
After Trump threatened Mexico with America’s highest price lists if it failed to stop an outbreak of undocumented immigrants, the Mexican government deployed some 26,000 troops to the country’s borders.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a left-wing populist, has sought smart relations with Trump despite anti-Mexican rhetoric from the American leader.
bur / bbk-mdl / bgs