OCOTOPEQUE, Honduras (AP) — A caravan of hundreds of Honduran migrants crossed the Guatemalan border under a broiling sun Monday hoping to make it to new lives in the United States, far from the poverty and violence of their home nation.
Singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, "Yes, we can," the group estimated at 1,600 or more insisted on traveling through Guatemala and Mexico in defiance of a Guatemalan order that the group not be allowed to pass.
"We have rights," the migrants shouted.
Keilin Umana, a 21-year-old who is two months pregnant, said she was moved to migrate to save herself and her unborn child after she was threatened with death.
"A letter arrived at my house saying I could not stay, that I had to leave, or else they were going to kill me," said Umana, who is a nurse.
"I was in hiding awhile," she added. "It's because I have this tattoo on my hand — it's not a gang thing. Look, it's the name of my father and mother."
Umana said she had been walking for four days. "We are not criminals — we are migrants," she said.
Many in the caravan traveled light, with just backpacks and bottles of water. Some pushed toddlers in strollers or carried them on their shoulders.
Carlos Cortez, a 32-year-old farmer traveling on foot with his 7-year-old son, said the poverty back home has made it impossible to support a family.
"Every day I earn about $5," Cortez said. "That isn't enough to feed my family."
The caravan was met at the border by about 100 Guatemalan police officers. After a tense standoff of about two hours, the migrants began walking again. The outnumbered police did nothing to stop them, merely accompanying them several miles (kilometers) into Guatemalan territory.
Some police and Guatemalan civilians offered the migrants water, and some locals drove Hondurans part of the way. Red Cross workers gave medical attention to some migrants who fainted in the heat.
The caravan began as about 160 people who first gathered early Friday to depart from San Pedro Sula, one of Honduras' most dangerous places, figuring that traveling as a group would make them less vulnerable to robbery, assault and other dangers common on the migratory path through Central America and Mexico.
Local media coverage prompted hundreds more to join, and Dunia Montoya, a volunteer assisting the migrants, estimated Sunday that the group had grown to at least 1,600 people. Police gave their own estimate of around 2,000 on Monday.
The caravan formed a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home and not put their families in danger by undertaking the risky journey to the United States.
In April, President Donald Trump threatened in April to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries that allowed transit for a similar caravan that set out from the Central American country. That caravan dwindled as the group approached the U.S. border, with some giving up along the way and others splitting off to try to cross on their own.
Historian Dana Frank, an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras, said the caravan could have political implications in the United States less than a month before the midterm elections.
"Whatever the caravan's origins, some in the United States will be quick to raise alarms about a supposed dangerous immigrant invasion, and use that to try to influence the upcoming U.S. elections," Frank said. "Others will view these migrants with compassion and as further evidence of the need for comprehensive immigration reform, a loving approach to those in such terrible straits and an end to U.S. support for the repressive Honduran government that is behind this humanitarian disaster."
Frank added that the caravan's rapid growth "underscores quite how desperate the Honduran people are — that they'd begin walking toward refuge in the United States with only a day back full of belongings."
Honduras is largely dominated by murderous gangs that prey on families and businesses, and routinely sees homicide rates that are among the highest in the world.
Mexico's Interior Ministry issued a reminder over the weekend that Mexico does not issue entry visas for those who don't meet "the requirements to transit toward a neighboring country." Also, Mexico said it issues visas at its consulates abroad, not at border entry points.
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Associated Press writer Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, contributed to this report.
