Mexico urges Honduras to attend and contain the migrant caravans

On Saturday, Mexico made a "respectful exhortation" to the Honduran authorities to "timely" attend to the irregular flow of migrants "in such a way as to prevent further displacement.

"(The Government of Mexico) respectfully exhorts the Honduran authorities to attend, in a timely manner, to this irregular flow of migrants, so that they may prevent further displacements," the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement.

On 15 January, a caravan of migrants from Honduras began its journey to Mexico, with the aim of reaching the United States.

The caravan, made up of more than 9,000 Hondurans, crossed western Guatemala on Saturday after overcoming several police obstacles that were intended to prevent their passage.

The SRE also called on the countries of the region to responsibly apply migration and health protocols to prevent risks from the COVID-19 pandemic to the people in the outpost.

Similarly, the Mexican Foreign Ministry acknowledged the "outstanding" work of the Government of Guatemala, of which it said that it "has acted firmly and responsibly in providing comprehensive care to the migrant contingents who have violated its sovereignty.

He stressed that the Guatemalan authorities have enforced the migration law and its health protocols to ensure orderly and regular income, safeguarding the integrity and lives of migrants and their populations.

He stated that the Mexican State "is not indifferent" to the structural causes that provoke these massive movements and recognizes the legitimate needs of the various populations that make up the migratory flows.

However," he said, "it is convinced that only through safe, orderly and regular migratory schemes will it be possible to guarantee effective and transversal attention to these populations, who face high risks during their migratory route.

For his part, Hugo López-Gatell, federal Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, said at a press conference that, in conjunction with the SRE, it was decided that a multi-institutional response operation would be integrated to ensure that people entering Mexico have the social protection that corresponds to any person in this country.

He said that the Mexican government is "very aware of human rights and our first concern is that people are not at risk".

He reported that the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked for health accompaniment to ensure that migrants do not fall ill and are not left unprotected in this regard, but at the same time that the Mexican population is reassured that, in the event that someone in the caravan is infected, the virus will not spread.

He said that since the beginning of his government at the end of 2018, authorities have mobilised to coordinate a health response to the migrant caravans.

López Obrador, of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), began his term in office on Dec. 1, 2018, and was very critical of his predecessors on migration issues and committed to human rights after the October 2018 caravans that entered Mexico for the purpose of reaching the United States.

In 2019, in response to the increase in the number of Central American migrant caravans crossing Mexico to the United States, the president of this country, Donald Trump, threatened to impose tariffs on all Mexican exports.

The Mexican government then agreed with the US government to militarise its southern border with Guatemala in exchange for promoting a development programme for Central America in order to curb migration, but this plan remained at a standstill.