-
Guatemalan security forces break up US-bound migrant caravan
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan security forces on Monday broke up a caravan of some 4,000 Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States on a journey of thousands of kilometers through Central America on foot, AFP reporters witnessed. Police advanced on the group in a coordinated move, striking batons against their shields to make an intimidating noise, prompting the migrants to scatter. The group was still on Guatemalan soil, and many would likely regroup to resume their quest for a better life further north. The caravan, which departed Honduras on Friday, has been held up sin...
AFP
-
Guatemala police fire tear gas, disperse US-bound migrant caravan
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of Honduran migrants trying to reach the United States on foot, with soldiers beating back a group trying to push through barricades, AFP journalists witnessed. Security forces surrounded the migrant caravan on a road in the southeastern Guatemalan town of Vado Hondo, near the border with Honduras. Amid the deafening explosions of gas and smoke cannisters, many migrants retreated, with some waiting nearby to make a new attempt later, while others fled into nearby mountains. Several dropped their spars...
AFP
-
Guatemala police fire tear gas at US-bound migrant caravan: AFP
Vado Hondo (Guatemala) (AFP) - Guatemalan police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of migrants headed for the United States on foot, and soldiers beat back a group that tried to push through barriers, AFP journalists witnessed. Security forces surrounded the migrant caravan on a road in the town of Vado Hondo, near the border with Honduras where they came from, and fired tear gas. Police say at least 6,000 people had arrived in the town, out of some 9,000 who left Honduras in recent days in the hopes of making it to the United States to start a new life there. The deafening explosion...
AFP
-
US-bound migrant caravan in Guatemala swells to 9,000 people
Camotan (Guatemala) (AFP) - At least 9,000 Honduran migrants have entered Guatemala after a first group pushed past border police late Friday and others soon followed on the first step of a journey north they hope will take them to the United States, officials said Saturday. Seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, the migrants, most of them traveling on foot, planned to head first to Mexico and then on to the US, a journey of thousands of kilometers. A first group of men, women and children -- many wearing masks due to th...
AFP
-
New migrant caravan leaves Honduras in pursuit of American dream
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - Some 3,000 people left Honduras on foot Friday in the latest migrant caravan hoping to find a welcome, and a better life, in the US under President-elect Joe Biden. Seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, the migrants plan to walk thousands of kilometers through Central America. But they will have to overcome a rash of travel restrictions in Guatemala and Mexico long before they even make it to the American border. The quest is likely to end in heartbreak for many, with American authoriti...
AFP
-
New migrant caravans leaving Honduras to pursue American dream
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - Hundreds of asylum seekers are forming new migrant caravans in Honduras, planning to walk thousands of kilometers through Central America to the United States via Guatemala and Mexico, in search of a better life under the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden. A first group of some 300 people 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 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest. Traveling in small groups, some bearing the Honduran flag, most of the migrants wore...
AFP
-
Solidarity among Hondurans in wake of Hurricane Eta
Screenshot of the YouTube video of Noticias Telemundo of Honduran images, November 5, 2020When Hurricane Eta ravaged Central America, it hit an already severely battered region. What had sprung as a Category 4 hurricane soon turned into a tropical storm and as of November 9, 235 people have been reported dead due to floods, mudslides, and crumbling houses. The numbers, however, are being updated every day.In Honduras, 1.6 million people have been affected and thousands are in need of shelters. On the ground, people are feeling a “combination of anguish, indignation, and solidarity”, according ...
Global Voices
-
Guatemala sends back almost 3,500 US-bound Honduran migrants
Guatemala City (AFP) - Guatemala has sent back almost 3,500 Honduran migrants from a caravan that was heading to the United States over concerns they might spread Covid-19, President Alejandro Giammattei said on Sunday.In a televised message, Giammattei said Guatemalan security forces were able to "contain" the caravan, that according to the president was a factor in the transmission of the virus."We are experiencing a pandemic in Guatemala which has cost us to control with months of efforts," said the president, adding it was an "obligation" to reduce the risk of further contagion.According t...
AFP
-
More than 2,000 US-bound migrants abandon trek in Guatemala
Entre Rios (Guatemala) (AFP) - More than 2,000 migrants on Saturday dropped their bid to reach the United States after Guatemala threatened to expel them out of concern they might spread Covid-19.The group, mostly made up of Hondurans who set out last Thursday from San Pedro Sula, asked local authorities to help them return home, the Guatemalan president's office told news media. An AFP journalist saw some being loaded into army trucks for the return trip.But some small groups said they remained determined to reach the US to escape the poverty and violence in their home country.Late Thursday, ...
AFP
-
Mexico deploys military to block migrant caravan
Tuxtla Gutierrez (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexico on Friday ordered the military to deploy along its southern border to block a migrant caravan that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested was linked to the US election.Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants were traveling through Guatemala, heading for the United States via Mexico, just weeks before a tense US presidential vote in which immigration is a key issue."It seems very strange to us. It's very strange that this caravan leaves on the eve of the election in the United States," Lopez Obrador told reporters."It has to do with the election i...
AFP
- More