TECUN UMAN, Guatemala--Hundreds of people in a caravan of migrants that crossed from Honduras into Guatemala tried unsuccessfully to breach the Mexican border on Friday, as local governments began making preparations to disperse the convoy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned the Central American caravan must be stopped before it reaches the United States, and Honduras and Guatemala said late on Friday they were mobilizing to assist the return of Honduran migrants to their homeland.
Earlier, hundreds of Central Americans in the caravan of thousands poured through Guatemalan border posts in the town of Tecun Uman and onto a bridge leading to Mexico, only to be halted by dozens of Mexican police in riot gear.
Some migrants violently shook fences at the border. A handful jumped into the Suchiate River below to swim for rafts. Others turned back toward Guatemala from the border of Mexico, whose government vowed to help tackle the caravan.
Carrying backpacks and small children, many bedraggled migrants simply sat down on the bridge. Some said that they had been teargassed. As the afternoon drew on, a tropical storm, Vicente, formed nearby off the Pacific coast.
Jose Brian Guerrero, a 24-year-old Honduran traveling with neighbours and his extended family, said he had joined the caravan to escape violent street gangs, and to find work. "There's nothing for us in our country," said Guerrero, who used to sell beans in Honduras.
On Friday evening, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said he had spoken to his Guatemalan counterpart Jimmy Morales for clearance to send civil protection personnel to help the Hondurans and to find transport for those wanting to return. "We'll continue this operation for as long as is necessary," Hernandez said in a post on Twitter.
Shortly afterwards, Guatemala's government tweeted that Hernandez would meet Morales on Saturday in Guatemala City to implement a strategy for returning the Honduran migrants. A similar caravan of Central Americans that formed in southern Mexico in late March also drew the ire of Trump, who on Thursday threatened to use the military and close the southern border if Mexico did not halt the new march. Such a move would cause chaos on the crossing, one of the world's busiest, and badly disrupt trade.
Speaking in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday, Trump said he "appreciated very much" Mexico's efforts to stop the caravan. "If that doesn't work out, we're calling up the military - not the (National) Guard - we're calling up the military," he told reporters. "They're not coming into this country."
Trump has also threatened to cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if they fail to prevent undocumented immigrants from heading to the United States. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are among the poorest and most violent countries in the Americas. Their emigrants make up the bulk of people now caught trying to enter the United States illegally every year.
