Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 17 January 2020
Guatemala sweeps up migrant, group, returns them to border

By SONIA PÉREZ D. its El Cinchado and Agua
Associated Press Caliente crossings. An un-
EL CINCHADO, Guatemala known number of others
(AP) — Guatemalan po- crossed irregularly.
lice accompanied by U.S. Many of those swept up
Immigration and Customs Thursday were expected
Enforcement agents swept to give up and return to
up the majority of a group Honduras, even as scat-
of some 300 migrants Thurs- tered groups continued to
day, loaded them on buses walk and hitchhike through
and took them back to the a tropical region of south-
Honduran border, effec- eastern Guatemala.
tively dashing their plans to Among them was Géne-
travel together in a "cara- sis Fuentes, a 19-year-old
van" with hopes of reach- Honduran who was part of
ing the United States. the first caravan in October
Near another border point, 2018. Back then she made
a different group of about it to the northern Mexico
600 rested at a shelter after city of Mexicali, across
crossing the frontier earlier from Calexico, California,
in the day and encounter- and lived there working
ing no resistance from po- as a waitress and cook for
lice. Other, smaller groups Guatemalan Red Cross paramedics attends Honduran migrants before they are deported, in about five months. She ul-
were traveling highways Morales, Guatemala, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. timately crossed the bor-
elsewhere in unorganized Associated Press der with some friends near
dribs and drabs in a move- the Central American bor- to a call for the first migrant bling the mass human flows Algodones, which borders
ment involving several der agreement between caravan in many months. that formed in recent years, California and Yuma, Ari-
thousand people but far Guatemala, Honduras, El Guatemala's tactics mir- inspiring the ire of U.S. Presi- zona, but was detained by
different in nature from pre- Salvador and Nicaragua. rored those employed last dent Donald Trump and U.S. border agents and de-
vious caravans. There was no violence in year by Mexico to discour- becoming a political foot- ported last May.
Praying and singing songs, the encounter, though age and break up cara- ball in the United States. Clad in a red T-shirt, a hood-
the group of 300 migrants some wept and begged vans on its territory follow- "I will say that this caravan is ed sweatshirt, jeans and
— adults, teens and young to be allowed to continue, ing intense pressure from not anything even remotely sandals, Fuentes was limp-
children — had set out while police gave them no Washington. similar to what we saw in '18 ing from a bruised knee. She
from a shelter in Entre Rios choice but to go back. Red Guatemalan President Ale- and a little bit in '19. A few explained that being sent
under rainy skies before Cross workers gave several jandro Giammattei said folks here and a few folks back home meant return-
dawn and walked about migrants anti-inflammatory Wednesday that the mi- there," acting U.S. Home- ing to a life that is no life at
six hours before stopping in medicine for wounds on grants would be allowed land Security Secretary all. "There is no work in Hon-
the town of Morales to eat their feet. to pass through Guatema- Chad Wolf said in an inter- duras," Fuentes said. "Since
and rest. There they were Guatemalan police who la, though he noted they view on the "Brian Kilmeade they deported us, we have
challenged by police who declined to be identified would need the proper Show" on FOX News Radio. not been able to find jobs."
asked for their entry docu- by name said the United papers and predicted they "What has changed ... are About 100 miles (160 kilo-
ments, and nearly all had States paid for the buses. would run into a "wall" in the number of agreements meters) to the southwest,
crossed into Guatemala ir- The U.S. Embassy in Guate- Mexico. Almost immedi- that we have in place with in Esquipulas, Guatemala,
regularly and didn't have mala did not immediately ately on Wednesday most Honduras, Guatemala, as the more than 600 migrants
such documentation. confirm that. of the migrants fractured well as Mexico." who crossed Thursday at
The migrants were put on The action effectively dis- into smaller groups, some Wolf also noted the pres- Agua Caliente lay on the
three gray buses and told solved what had been the as small as 20-30 people, ence of U.S. "tactical ground under a low, gray
they had to go back to largest and most cohesive and began walking along agents" in Guatemala. sky, sleeping or eating. A
register properly at a bor- group that left the Hondu- highways, boarding buses Guatemala's immigration plan was forming to spend
der station under rules gov- ran city of San Pedro Sula and hitching rides in private agency reported a total of the night there and leave
erning freedom of travel in on Wednesday in response cars. It was nothing resem- 2,274 migrants registered at before dawn Friday.q
U.S. backs Brazil's bid for membership in Paris-based OECD

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Bureau of Western Hemi- on economic policy. zil to join the OECD once its Spanish acronym CELAC.
Associated Press sphere Affairs. "The Brazilian The U.S. announcement is more shows we are build- Brazil's Foreign Ministry told
SAO PAULO (AP) — The U.S. government is working to welcome news for Bolson- ing a solid partnership with The AP that it "instructed
government is backing Bra- align its economic policies aro, whose alignment with the U.S.," Brazilian Foreign certain embassies in Latin
zil's bid to join the Organiza- with OECD standards while U.S. President Donald Trump Minister Ernesto Araújo said America and the Carib-
tion for Economic Coop- prioritizing OECD accession has been the cornerstone on Twitter. bean, earlier this week, to
eration and Development, to reinforce economic re- of his foreign policy. The Trump recently walked communicate the decision
providing a foreign policy forms," the spokesperson U.S. government had said back an earlier decision to to suspend the participa-
boost for Brazilian President said in a statement sent in October that it was priori- impose tariffs on Brazilian tion in different forums of
Jair Bolsonaro. to The Associated Press on tizing Argentina's inclusion, steel and aluminum. CELAC, both political and
"The United States wants Wednesday. The State De- then governed by right- Separately, Bolsonaro's ad- technical."
Brazil to become the next partment spokesperson de- leaning President Mauricio ministration has decided Brazil's decision is due to
country to begin the acces- clined to be named in line Macri, a Trump ally. Macri to leave a regional group the presence of Cuba and
sion process" to the OECD, with department rules. lost his reelection bid. called the Community of Venezuela in the group,
said a U.S. State Depart- The Paris-based OECD ad- "The American announce- Latin American and Carib- according to O Globo
ment spokesperson for the vises developed countries ment of a priority for Bra- bean States, also known by newspaper.q