Guatemala cracks down on caravan of 9,000 migrants bound for US – By Al Jazeera and News Agencies (Al Jazeera) / January 16 2021
Asylum seekers from Honduras are fleeing violence and economic hardship worsened by COVID-19 pandemic and recent storms.
Guatemalan security forces have clashed with hundreds of Honduran migrants and asylum seekers travelling in a caravan bound for the United States.
Police and soldiers, many wearing helmets and wielding shields and sticks, formed ranks on Saturday across a highway in the village of Vado Hondo, Chiquimula, near the Honduras border, to block the procession of migrants.
Videos distributed by Guatemala’s immigration agency showed a couple of hundred men scuffling with security forces, pushing and running through their lines, even as troops held hundreds more back.
“A small group got through and the rest were detained. The people who got past have been located,” said Alejandra Mena, a spokeswoman for Guatemala’s immigration agency.
The Hondurans were making their way on foot across Guatemala heading towards Mexico, many of them fleeing violence and economic hardship worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and recent deadly storms.
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