On October 16, President Donald Trump threatened to suspend all funding and aid to Honduras if a migrant caravan originating in Honduras and headed north is not stopped. When he made the statement, the caravan of some 3,000 immigrants had already crossed into Guatemala. "The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the US is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!" Trump tweeted. Hours after his tweet, Honduran journalist and former Libre party Congressman Bartolo Fuentes, who had previously been stigmatized on social media, was arrested by Guatemalan border police. According to press reports, up to 3,000 migrants crossed from Honduras into Guatemala, after a standoff with police in riot gear and warnings from Washington that migrants should not try to enter the United States illegally. A statement on the website of the US embassy in Honduras declares that “the situation in Honduras has notably improved” and attempts to dissuade migrants from leaving. Just weeks earlier the US embassy had renewed a travel advisory stating that travelers intending to go to Honduras should reconsider because of crime.
On October 17, Charge d’Affaires Heidi Fulton in a video message implored Hondurans traveling to the US to return. “You are being tricked by false promises by leaders with political and criminal aims,” she said, echoing claims of the Honduran government. She acknowledged, “the reality here is difficult for many people.”
A Honduran man traveling in the second caravan to the United States was killed on October 28, on the Guatemala-Mexico border, reportedly by a Mexican Federal Police officer. Henry Adalid Díaz Reyes, a twenty-six year old from Tegucigalpa, died of a head wound caused by a rubber bullet. Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete denied that the Mexican Federal Police were responsible, stating that they were not carrying any weapons. Firemen in Guatemala administering first aid to Diaz and ten others injured at the border have stated that he was killed by a rubber bullet fired by Mexican Federal Police. The Honduran Secretary of Exterior Relations has called for an investigation, repudiating “any form of criminalization and violence against people who migrate.” Movimento Amplio reports that Henry's death marked the third death of a Honduran to join the migrant caravan.
For more on the caravan, see an interview (in Spanish) with Alberto Xicoténcatl, director of the Casa de Migrante Saltillo, a PBI-accompanied organization.
