Caravan of 3,000 Central American migrants crosses into Mexico

Hundreds of people in a caravan of migrants that crossed from Honduras into Guatemala staged a dramatic bid to breach the Mexican border on Friday, as local governments began preparing to disperse the convoy under pressure from Washington.

Migrants poured through Guatemalan border posts in the town of Tecun Uman and on to a bridge leading to Mexico, only to be halted by dozens of Mexican police in riot gear. Mexico’s president sharply rebuked the migrants for the border surge.

US 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 mobilising to assist the return of Honduran migrants to their homeland.

Some migrants violently shook fences at the border and police said a few officers were injured in clashes. A handful of migrants jumped into the Suchiate river below to swim for rafts. Others turned back toward Guatemala.

Carrying backpacks and small children, many bedraggled migrants sat down on the bridge. Some said that they had been teargassed.

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.

Ivys Osorio, 31, said he was trying to return to Houston, where he lived for 16 years before he was deported in 2016 – and where his wife still lives. “I thought they weren’t going to let us cross – but now I feel getting closer to her,” he said.

An army helicopter hovered on the northern bank of the river, some at the front crowd clashed with a line of Mexican police with riot shields, who fired pepper spray at the migrants.

A few dozen migrants managed to push past, but most of the crowd formed lines on the bridge as they waited to be processed by Mexican migration officials.

The dramatic scenes came a week after a group of migrants set out from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, to escape crushing poverty and the violence which has turned their country into one of the most dangerous nations in the world.

The exhausted marchers had spent the night under rainy skies on the streets and in a park in the border town of Tecún Umán, where the shelter for migrants and a local Catholic parish were filled to capacity.

Few were aware of Trump’s attempts to deter the caravan with threats to cut aid payments and deploy troops on the US border.

“I think he’s just trying to scare people,” said Heidy Bonilla, 19, rocking her six-month old son, Jeyden. Bonilla had joined the caravan with her mother Mayra, 52; both women were – like many female migrants – trying to escape domestic violence.

“God has the final word – only he can decide what happens next.”

What awaited them across the border was uncertain.

Mexico’s government has said only migrants with the proper papers will be allowed entry into the country, although anyone wishing to seek asylum was free to do so. In Tecún Umán on Friday morning, representatives from the UN refugee agency were handing out leaflets explaining how to claim refugee status in Mexico.

Mexico received 14,596 claims in 2017 – more than a six-fold increase from 2014 – but half of the claims made last year are still unresolved, prompting the National Human Rights Commission to warn of the “pending collapse of the refugee protection system in Mexico”.

Mexico appeared to be attempting to avoid a rerun of a previous caravan of migrants, which formed over Easter and swelled in size, capturing the attention of conservative US media – and Trump.

One of that caravan’s organisers, Irineo Mujica, a dual US-Mexican citizen, was arrested during a peaceful protest on Thursday. Video on social media showed him being stuffed into an immigration institute van as protesters resisted.

Late on Thursday, Trump retweeted a video of Mexican federal police arriving at the Guatemalan border and wrote: “Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!”

But for many in the caravan, Trump’s hostility seemed illogical.

“Latinos are the base of the USA; he needs people like us,” said Carlos Orellana, 23, who said he was heading north in search of employment as a welder.

Illegal immigration to the US from Mexico is much lower than in the early 2000s, but growing numbers of families are fleeing the “northern triangle” of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to escape poverty, violence and the early effects of climate change.

Omar, 48, was travelling with his 17-year-old daughter who didn’t want to be named because they were fleeing threats and extortion by one of the many street gangs that dominate the region.

He was scornful at Trump’s threat to withhold aid to the Honduran government of President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was re-elected in December amid allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Like many Hondurans, Caballeros blames the US for supporting the 2009 military coup against the country’s elected government.

“They destabilise our country, wreck our economy, and protect the corrupt, who keep all the money the US sends. We don’t care if they stop the aid – we never see any of it,” he said.

Caballeros ran his hand through his white hair, then wiped tears of anger from his face. “All we want is to get out of that hell we were living in San Pedro [Sula],” he said.