After Guatemalan Forces Break up Bigger Caravan, Some 3,000 U.S.-Bound Migrants Continue On

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Jan 23, 2021 03:38 AM EST

Just days after security forces in Guatemala stopped a large caravan of Honduran migrants, a second of the group is moving forward with their journey toward the U.S. border, reports said.

Citing Honduran newspaper La Prensa, Newsweek reported that around 3,000 migrants have managed to move forward to the Mexican border, while the rest returned home.

Many of these migrants are fleeing violence and poverty made worse by the global pandemic and recent deadly hurricanes that caused severe destruction in Honduras.

Migrant Caravans

The first caravan of the year consisted of about 8,000 people wanted to reach the U.S. and hoped that new President Joe Biden would be more welcoming to asylum seekers than former president Donald Trump.

According to Newsweek, the migrants came from San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras - a city that was once described as the "murder capital of the world." They hope to travel on to Mexico and then the southern U.S. border.

Meanwhile, Daily Mail reported that another migrant caravan is set to depart Honduras on Monday, Jan. 25.

The report noted that some Honduran Facebook users urged migrants to meet up on Sunday at the San Pedro Sula terminal, where many other caravans departed from in the past. They are set to march Monday before sunrise.

Citing the Guatemalan TV network Televisiete, the Daily Mail reported that at least 3,000 migrants plan to gather in another attempt to reach the U.S. border and seek asylum from Pres. Biden's administration. It was also reported that a caravan of migrants had been scheduled to depart El Salvador on Feb. 14.

Guatemalan immigration authorities said that as many as 5,300 migrants had gone back to Honduras after being blocked at the El Florida border crossing on Tuesday.

Some of the 8,000 Honduran migrants broke past a human barricade formed by Guatemalan soldiers and police officers before their trek to the Mexican border was denied.

Officials noted that migrants who decided not to return to Honduras have spread out across the country.

Guatemala health officials said that at least 21 Hondurans tested positive for COVID-19 and were placed under quarantine. Once the migrants tested negative for the virus, they will be deported to Honduras.

Reports noted that some Guatemalan residents opened their homes to Honduran migrants and allowed them to camp out in their terraces as they continue to weigh their options.

Last week's caravan was the first since October last year when some 3,000 Honduran migrants made their way into Guatemala before they were forced to go back.

Honduran Migrants Protesting

After being blocked by security forces, many Hondurans felt desperate. Among them was Isaac Portillo, 18. According to a Reuters report, Portillo said that he felt so desperate upon his forced return to Honduras that he thought of suicide.

Portillo then decided to join a march on the capital Tegucigalpa on Friday, which is only a week after he tried to depart his country.

"We're going to oust this narco-dictator. I already have my group ready," Portillo said in the report.

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández had been scrutinized by U.S. prosecutors, accusing him of having ties with drug cartels and had the country's armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the U.S.

Hernández had vehemently denied these allegations. He said the accusations against him are rooted in traffickers' anger for clamping down on them.