Police in Guatemala have found 54 Haitian migrants, including 14 children, travelling towards Mexico in a truck trailer with the hope of reaching the United States, according to officials.
Two Guatemalans suspected of driving the truck were detained, police spokesman Jorge Aguilar said in a statement on Tuesday.]
The Haitians were “immediately given assistance and transported to the border” with Honduras, from where they had entered Guatemala illegally.
Scores of Haitians have arrived in Central America trying to reach the US, adding to the already large numbers of people from the region also looking for a brighter future there.
Many Haitians arrive in Central America after crossing the treacherous Darian Gap jungle between Colombia and Panama.Upwards of 100,000 migrants have crossed the Darian Gap in 2021 so far, according to official Panamanian figures, almost as many as during the past six years combined.
More than 50 migrants have died trying to cross that jungle this year alone, according to Panamanian authorities.
The jungle route is full of peril, including wild animals, armed gangs and dangerous rivers.
Dozens of migrants travelling north to Mexico City have clashed with Mexican National Guard officers in the southern state of Chiapas, near where a Cuban national was killed on Sunday by the militarised police force.
The group of mostly Central American women and children resumed their journey on Monday in the Pijijiapan municipality of Chiapas, after fatigue and illnesses among some members prompted a two-day break.
“There are two injured migrants, they were badly beaten. The officers tried to surround them with their shields,” Luis Garcia, who helped organise the caravan, told Reuters news agency over the phone.
“Everything was chaotic. It’s not right that the authorities keep acting this way. Despite all the repression we’re not going to stop,” Garcia said, adding that authorities had escorted away migrants in at least four buses.
The AFP news agency also reported that at least one officer was injured and 25 people were detained amid the clashes on Thursday.The National Guard did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters or AFP.
National Guard troops, who donned helmets and riot shields, confronted the migrants, according to images on social media. Other videos shared with Reuters showed several migrants being detained by National Migration Institute (NMI) agents.
The NMI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The clashes occurred near where a Cuban migrant was shot dead and four others were wounded by National Guard officers early on Sunday in an area where a caravan of migrants was heading towards the United States border.
Authorities said the National Guard opened fire at a pick-up truck attempting to avoid a checkpoint, putting “at imminent risk their safety”.
US President Joe Biden, who promised to reverse some of his predecessor Donald Trump’s most hardline anti-immigration policies, has sought to stem the flow of irregular migration at the nation’s southern border.
The administration has left a contentious Trump-era public health order known as Title 42 in place, allowing US officials to immediately expel most migrants who arrive in hopes of applying for asylum in the country.
But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to reach the US. Thousands say they have been pushed to leave their countries due to gang violence, high unemployment rates, and systemic inequalities, as well as the devastation caused by recent extreme storms.
A few thousand migrants set off on foot in a caravan last month from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.