Guatemala.
The governments of the United States, Mexico and Guatemala agreed this Friday to ban the passage of migrating caravans through their territory due to the pandemic, days after one of Honduras be forcibly disbanded in Guatemalan territory.
Guatemala announced today that it will strengthen controls at its borders in the face of new potential massive flows of Central American migrants heading to U.S and reiterated its support to promote “safe, orderly and regular” migration.
“Migration and health controls will be enforced and strengthened at all border posts,” Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo said in a joint statement with the ambassadors of Mexico and Mexico. U.SRomeo Ruiz and William W. Popp, respectively.
The measure is intended to comply with the law, ensure security and enforce sanitary protocols that make it possible to reduce infections originating from it COVID-19, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Secretary of State called on “friendly countries” to “prove with facts that any attempt to create massive flows of people will not be tolerated and will be counteracted.
Irregular migration exponentially increases the dangers along migration routes; it creates greater vulnerability in this sector of the population and promotes disorder and lack of control that seriously affect collective security, ”he warned.
According to the head of Guatemalan diplomacy, groups that migrate irregularly are constantly exposed to “humiliation and violation of their human rights as they are potential victims of human trafficking and human rights. human trafficking”.
Brolo declined Mexico and U.S the guidance and support they provide Guatemala to maintain safe, orderly and regular migration, saying the three countries “are joining forces to effectively combat the causes of irregular migration”.
The Chancellor also thanked the support of several United Nations agencies with which he maintains “a fluid dialogue” to “address this migration phenomenon in detail, providing supplies and transportation to bring these people safely back to their countries of origin. “. .
More than 9,000 Hondurans left in a caravan from various parts of their country last week to reach the United States in search of better living conditions.
However, a group of 6,000 migrants was forcibly disbanded by agents of the National Civil Police of Guatemala on a highway in the department of Chiquimula, in the east of the country, making the passage to Mexico.
Between January 14 and 20, more than 4,500 Central Americans, mostly Hondurans, were returned to their respective countries for illegally entering Guatemala territory, according to immigration authorities.