Hundreds of people, mainly Venezuelans, set out on foot Saturday from Honduras toward Guatemala, in the first migrant caravan of 2024 seeking to reach the United States from the Central American country, authorities reported.
“The movement is approximately 500 to 600 people, most are Venezuelans,” said Alejandra Mena, spokeswoman for Guatemala’s Immigration Institute. Mena also said this is the first migrant caravan that will try to cross the Guatemalan border so far this year.
According to local media, the caravan set out on foot from a bus terminal in San Pedro Sula, where they had gathered the day before. From that city in northern Honduras, the migrants, including women with young children, head to Corinto, a border town with Guatemala.
“This is a mixed migratory flow made up of migrants of different nationalities,” Allan Alvarenga, executive director of Honduras’ National Immigration Institute, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Since 2028, Honduran migrants have formed caravans of thousands of people trying to cross Guatemala and Mexico on their way to the United States.
These groups are usually joined by other migrants, mainly Venezuelans, who come from South America and who are also looking for the so-called “American dream.”
Some have crossed the inhospitable Panamanian jungle of Darien, on the border with Colombia, a route that more than half a million migrants passed through in 2023, overwhelmed by poverty, violence and lack of opportunities in their countries.
However, the last few times they have tried to enter Guatemala they have been repressed by the police. “I’ve left five times because there’s no work, I have to make a living there,” Honduran Wilfredo Bonilla told Televicentro channel.
“We are all going to get there together as a family, we are going to get there fine,” another migrant, identified as Rafael, replied.
