On Friday, John reported on the return of an unwelcome fall ritual. That would be the start of the migrant caravan season when illegal aliens gather together in huge groups to attempt the trek from Guatemala and Honduras up through Mexico to either try to cross the United States border illegally or present themselves for asylum. (Frequently both if they get caught trying to jump the border.) In this case, roughly 1,000 migrants, primarily from Honduras, formed up and headed through Guatemala toward Mexico’s southern border heading north. By yesterday, their numbers were estimated to have swollen to 2,000. But in a surprising turn of events, the governments of both Guatemala and Mexico stepped up their games and shut the caravan down almost entirely. As of this morning, the vast majority of them were on buses heading back to Honduras. (Associated Press)

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About 1,000 Honduran migrants headed for the United States became increasingly desperate Friday in the face of a police and army roadblock in northern Guatemala that was preventing them from continuing toward the United States.

Seldom since 2018 have the prospects for a migrant caravan been so discouraging. Guatemala’s president sees them as a contagion risk amid the coronavirus pandemic and has vowed to deport them. Mexico’s president thinks the caravan is a plot to influence the U.S. elections. And newly formed Tropical Storm Gamma threatens to dump torrential rain on their planned route through southern Mexico.

Fears of a confrontation grew as over 100 Guatemalan soldiers and police blocked the migrants, who became increasingly frustrated with the lack of food and forward movement after walking hundreds of kilometers from Honduras earlier this week.

Fears that the Guatemalan soldiers might actually open fire on the migrants never materialized, though the rumor made for some hot headlines in the local press. Instead, when some self-appointed leaders of the caravan demanded that the soldiers either let them pass or give them some food, they were informed that they had entered the country illegally and would be deported back to their nation of origin. Some small groups reportedly made it past the roadblock, but their future prospects didn’t look much better.


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