Weary migrants wait at Guatemala roadblock as caravan stalls

VADO HONDO, Guatemala — Guatemalan police and soldiers on Monday broke up a group of hundreds of migrants who experienced used two nights caught at a roadblock on a rural highway.

Some migrants threw rocks while authorities launched tear fuel and pushed the migrants with their riot shields back down the freeway. Migrants with children were a lot more gently prodded back again the way they had appear.

The year’s 1st migrant caravan had mostly stalled two days in advance of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Biden has promised to get a various approach to immigration and even however instant improvements at the U.S. border are not envisioned, it has established some hope in Central America.

A steep mountain and tall wall flanking the rural freeway have authorized Guatemalan authorities to bottle up the team that had numbered about 2,000 when it pushed into Guatemala Friday night time.

Their ranks have decreased via attrition as some migrants have agreed to be bused again to the Honduran border. A Guatemalan official repeated that offer you Monday morning, telling the migrants they experienced buses at the prepared for those who needed to return to Honduras. A smaller range have been forcefully sent again just after scuffling with authorities who held their line with baton strikes and tear fuel.

The principal of aim of the authorities’ midday press was to reopen the highway. Police and troopers banged their riot shields intimidatingly as an formal told the migrants to obvious the freeway. The migrants scattered, but remained in the basic location.

Guatemala’s immigration authorities reported Monday that a different team of about 800 migrants experienced been found about 25 miles farther north together the highway near Rio Hondo. They are also blocked from advancing there, but authorities explained they properly negotiated opening one particular lane of targeted traffic so automobiles could go.

Pedro Brolo Vila, Guatemala’s foreign affairs secretary, criticized Honduras’ government Monday for not executing much more to dissuade the caravan. He mentioned Guatemala experienced been getting ready since December for this caravan, which includes conferences with their counterparts in Honduras, Mexico and the United States.

Guatemala was “totally surprised” by Honduras’ absence of cooperation, Brolo claimed. He reported Honduras experienced promised to set out a large contingent of safety forces to dissuade the migrants from achieving Guatemala’s border. As a substitute, Honduran stability forces accompanied the migrants “toward our borders exactly where regrettably we noticed how they entered violently, violating Guatemala’s territorial sovereignty.”