Daily Times

More than 2,000 Honduran migrants traveling en masse through Guatemala resumed their journey toward the United States on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump sought to turn the caravan into a political issue three weeks before midterm elections.

A day after warning Central American governments they risk losing US aid if they don’t do something and saying that anyone entering the US illegally would be arrested and deported, Trump turned his sights on Democrats and urged Republican allies to campaign on border security.

“Hard to believe that with thousands of people from South of the Border, walking unimpeded toward our country in the form of large Caravans, that the Democrats won’t approve legislation that will allow laws for the protection of our country. Great Midterm issue for Republicans!” Trump said in a Wednesday morning tweet. “Republicans must make the horrendous, weak and outdated immigration laws, and the Border, a part of the Midterms!” he continued. In Guatemala, the migrants rose early and many left without eating breakfast, bound for Zacapa, the next city on their route. Overcast skies and a light drizzle took the edge off the sweltering heat and humidity, making the trek more bearable. Luis Navarreto, a 32-year-old migrant in the caravan, said he had read about Trump’s threats to his country but was undeterred. “We are going to continue,” Navarreto said. “It is God who decides here. We have no other option but to move ahead.”

The migrants are fleeing widespread poverty and gangland violence in one of the world’s most murderous countries, and many blame Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez for what they call unlivable conditions back home. “We are here because of Juan Orlando,” said Nelson Zavala, a 36-year-old laborer. The previous day the migrants advanced about 30 miles (40 kilometers) from the Honduras-Guatemala border to arrive at the city of Chiquimula.

That is a tiny portion of the almost 1,350 miles (2,200 kilometers) they would have to travel to reach the closest US border.

Some were able to hitch rides, packing the flatbeds of pickups and farm trucks, and even cargo holds of semis, while many more continued on foot with backpacks, strollers and Honduran flags. Hundreds advanced farther and faster than the main group to reach the Guatemalan capital, according to the Casa del Migrante shelter there. The caravan has snowballed since about 160 migrants departed Friday from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, with many people joining spontaneously while carrying just a few belongings. Estimates of their numbers ranged up to 3,000.

Three weeks before the US elections, the caravan was bound to draw Trump’s ire. But he did not follow through on a similar threat to cut aid to Honduras in April over an earlier caravan, which eventually petered out in Mexico. On Tuesday, Honduras’ president accused unnamed “political groups” organizing the caravan based on lies in order to cause problems in Honduras.

Published in Daily Times, October 19^th 2018.