4000 migrants and refugees flee Honduras

On Friday the first caravan of refugees and migrants for the year left Honduras. Some 4,000 people are fleeing the country in search of tolerable living standards. 

Following hurricanes, increased poverty as a result of pandemic measures, and continued governmental corruption and gang violence, many people have been left homeless, impoverished, or with no choice but to leave. 

Here is some of our key coverage over the past months, looking at these issues:

📌Official data distorts the true number of storm-related deaths in Honduras

📌Hoaxes and errors with the Honduran president’s Covid-19 test results

📌The women on the front lines of the pandemic

📌Covid-19 and hurricanes don’t affect us all equally

📌Chamelecón: Neglected people rebuild

Our journalists have accompanied the caravan and shot photos and videos that capture the conditions they are migrating under and the way security forces have treated them. 

🔑 Migrants are seen leaving on their journey from Honduras at 4.30 am in the morning.

🔑 In this video you can see Honduran security forces checking migrant’s IDs.

🔑 Here, migrants in facemasks continue with their journey.

🔑 As migrants tried to reach Guatemala, huge police operatives intercepted them.

Journalist Sandra Cuff shared her photos of Guatemalan police checking migrants for ID. Those without Covid tests were sent back, she says.

Vaccine and pandemic inequality

While México, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are asking migrants travelling by foot for Covid tests, Mexico for example, has not been doing so for US tourists who arrive in the country by air.  

The measure is also unreasonable, given the lack of access to Covid-19 tests in Central America and Mexico. While hospital systems are strained and struggling to take care of all those who need help, tests are often next to impossible to obtain unless people who are better off can pay high prices, privately.

Note, some countries in Central America are eligible for free vaccines via the COVAX, but none of these have been confirmed yet, let alone arrived. Poorer countries are unlikely to see significant vaccine administrations this year.

New accusations that Honduran president Hernández protected drug traffickers

New accusations have surfaced that President Juan Orlando Hernández directly brokered deals to protect drug traffickers in exchange for money. 

On January 8, US prosecutors said alleged drug trafficker, Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramírez met with Hernández and gave him money in exchange for protection from police, as well as military support for the logistics of trafficking. More in this article from Insight Crime. 

Indictment charges MS-13 leaders 

The US embassy in El Salvador also shared the news that 14 MS-13 leaders, who allegedly directed the MS-13’s criminal activity around the world for almost two decades, have been charged with conspiracy. 

The conspiracy charges include, “conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism and narco-terrorism conspiracy in connection with the defendants’ leadership of the transnational criminal organization.”

Take action

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