• Migration Guatemala detains and violently represses the Honduran Migrant Caravan

The Guatemalan Army and Police decided to stop the Migrant Caravan by firing tear gas and hitting the people who left Honduras in search of a better future in the United States with sticks.

Again, as with another Caravan in October last year, Guatemalan security forces worked hard to prevent migrants from advancing towards Tecún Umán to cross the Suchiate River that separates Guatemala and Mexico.

Moments before forcefully repressing the Caravan, a Migration worker tried in vain and with a small loudspeaker to convince the 6,000 people who wanted to continue their journey to return to the border to enter Guatemala on a regular basis: "They have to do the immigration check and that is what you did not do, "he shouted at them, while reminding them that the requirements to enter the country are to show your passport and

a negative PCR or coronavirus antigen test

.

"It was closed and they did not let us pass,"

answered a migrant, who indicated that "now we are not going to return to the border," while showing the Migration worker a paper with the negative result of his Covid test.

"Let's move forward," shouted several migrants, who recalled that "there are children and we don't even have enough to eat."

After the refusal to reverse the journey, a group of migrants decided to continue their walk, despite the police and military cordon that was completely overwhelmed.

At that time, hundreds of soldiers and police tried unsuccessfully to push the migrants and began to beat them with their batons, wounding several of them in the head.

Likewise, some people threw stones at the soldiers and policemen, who in turn fired tear gas and even surrounded a migrant whom they beat, threw to the ground and even kicked.

All this happened at kilometer 177 of Vado Hondo, in Chiquimula, in the east of the country, which is the same point where the Caravan had tried without success the night before to cross the military and police barrier placed within the framework of the State of Prevention. decreed by the Government of Guatemala in seven departments for 15 days to prevent the advance of the human exodus.

Minutes later, the Director General of Migration, Guillermo Díaz, justified the military and police action against the Caravan that entered Guatemala on January 15 and said that "it was to be expected", because "we had intelligence within the group that informed us Last night that

elements of the maras (gangs) of Honduras and organized crime had infiltrated into this great Caravan

and this already worried us more. "

"

Fortunately, the forces of order set up the contingency plan

in these cases and were able to control what was a pitched battle and at 8 in the morning everything was violated, which puts us in a very complicated situation because the security forces are precisely to safeguard order, "he stressed.

In this sense, the Guatemalan Migration Institute accused the migrants of having used force to try to "break the security cordon without having succeeded" and detailed that "injured persons are reported among migrants, Army personnel and immigration personnel."

Likewise, he stressed that Migration seeks to "comply with current immigration laws, respecting the human rights of migrants", although the Human Rights Ombudsman, Jordán Rodas, has shown his

"alarm and concern" at the use of force on the part of the Army and the Police against the Caravan

and recalled that migrants "cannot be subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment in Guatemalan territory."

"THE INTENTION WAS NOT TO ATTACK THEM"

Following the repression of the Caravan by the Army and the Police, a police officer addressed a migrant who had been hit on the head and who was sitting on the ground to tell him that "the truth is that the intention was not to attack them."

In turn, a nurse who was treating the wound and who reported that there were seven other people with "their heads open," explained that one of the groups of migrants who "was on the other side began to attack and should not have attacked. , because

among you there are passive people and people who are violent

. "

Meanwhile, at another point, a police officer spoke with several migrants, to whom he wanted to make it clear that "we are not labeling them as criminals", but as public officials we have to make them see that some committed illegalities "when entering the country without Thus, he reminded them that "our obligation is to try to control those groups that enter Guatemala illegally and I want them to understand that we are not here to harm them."

For his part, one of the migrants stressed that

"we are not attacking anyone, because we have been escaping from a violent country and we do not want to see blood

.

"

In this way, he said that they only want them to "give us a step" through Guatemala to cross into Mexico and continue their journey to the US.

However, although the migrants could pass the Suchiate River into Mexico, as happened in the January 2020 Caravan, the Police and the National Guard will be waiting for them on the other side of the shore with a large deployment of thousands of agents patrolling the 24 hours a day.

At the moment, a group of 6,000 migrants stranded

in the middle of the road in Vado Hondo, in Chiquimula

, continues in Guatemala

, while between January 14 and 17, 1,383 people have already returned to Honduras (192 under 18 years of age) that also made up the Caravan, as reported by the Guatemalan Migration Institute, which has indicated that it is awaiting information on the location of minority groups that managed to continue their journey to Mexico.

The objective of the Caravan was to arrive in the United States coinciding with the new government of Joe Biden, which has already announced changes in immigration policy in relation to the Donald Trump administration.

Thus, according to US media published, he intends to request, during his first days in office in Congress, an immigration reform that offers legal status to 11 million migrants living without permission in that country.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Mexico

  • Joe biden

  • Donald trump

  • Refugees

Latin America Chavismo installs its new Parliament in Venezuela

The poisoned legacy that Mike Pompeo leaves to Joe Biden

Venezuela Maximum pressure on Juan Guaidó on the day of the inauguration of the Chavista National Assembly

See links of interest

  • Coronavirus

  • Napoli - Fiorentina

  • Aston Villa - Everton

  • Sheffield United - Tottenham Hotspur

  • Crotone - Benevento

  • The final of the Super Cup, live: Barcelona - Athletic