WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to close the country’s southern border with Mexico if the caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants who left Honduras on Saturday for the United States continues its journey.
“In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest terms, ask Mexico to stop this attack, and if I can not do so, I will call the US Army and ( so that) CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER! “, said Trump in his Twitter account.
In recent days, the US president has already threatened to cut aid funds to the Honduran government “immediately” if it does not end the caravan of people who are heading to the US, fleeing violence and poverty, according to the organizers.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would also put an end to the cooperation treaties that Guatemala and El Salvador receive “if they allow their citizens, or others, to travel across their borders and arrive in the United States, with the intention of entering the United States in a illegal way.”
In his tweet today, Trump criticized the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for doing “little to prevent this great influx of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico in the direction of the United States.”
He also criticized the US Democratic Party because “they advocate for Open Borders and weak (immigration) laws,” a criticism he has repeated since his arrival in the White House.
A first group of the first caravan arrived yesterday at the border of Guatemala with Mexico, according to the Pastoral of Human Mobility of the Episcopal Conference of the Guatemalan country.
The president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, said Wednesday that the “massive” entry of Honduran migrants is a “risk” for the country and its inhabitants and said he is trying to verify its intentions with the help of international organizations.
In addition to the caravan of Hondurans who left on Saturday, formed by about 3,000 people according to the UN, a second large group of migrants from the same country left for the United States Tuesday.
Specifically, the Government of El Salvador yesterday allowed the entry of “415 Hondurans” to its territory, who are part of this second caravan of migrants, according to official data, although the group is made up of several hundred more people.
TEXT: EFE News Agency
