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Guatemala City (dpa) - The new so-called migrant caravan with several thousand people was stopped in Guatemala on its way to the USA, according to government information, with violence and tear gas.
Several people were injured, said the human rights representative of the Central American country, Jordán Rodas Andrade, in a statement on social networks on Sunday (local time).
TV images and videos on social networks showed how thousands of migrants gathered in groups in the Guatemalan city of Vado Hondo and tried to break a cordon of the security forces.
They used batons.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, eleven migrants and two soldiers were injured.
More than 1,300 migrants have been sent back or handed over to the authorities, according to Guatemala's migration authority.
Several groups of thousands of migrants from Honduras had crossed the border into Guatemala since Friday evening.
The Mexican broadcaster "TV Azteca" reported on more than 9,000 migrants.
The caravan had joined forces on Thursday in the city of San Pedro Sula in northwest Honduras.
According to local media reports, it was about Hondurans who had fled the Central American country because of violence, poverty and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes in November and wanted to seek a better life in the United States.
UNHCR reported on groups that had reached Guatemala City and received humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, Mexico stepped up surveillance of the border with Guatemala in the state of Chiapas.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210118-99-66675 / 2