By David Toro Escobar
Puerto Barrios (Guatemala), May 16 (EFE).- Thousands of migrants cross the border between Honduras and Guatemala every day on their way to the United States, facing threats from tropical diseases like dengue, arrests by security forces and subsequent deportation, and the impact of a route hit by climate change.
At the El Corinto border, between Guatemala and Honduras, the Guatemalan Red Cross assists migrants in need of medical help.
“Our job is to alleviate a little suffering and dignify the lives of people who are in transit,” explains Mariana Bonilla, who works with the Red Cross at the Care Center for Migrants and Refugees (CAPMIR) located on the Guatemalan side of the border.
Every morning, Bonilla, 31, and her team scour the border highway, surrounded by African palms, banana trees, and the imposing Motagua River—the largest in Guatemala—searching for groups of migrants to guide them to points where they can receive support.
Within their care center, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), migrants receive both medical and psychosocial assistance. “Many come with trauma from their passage through the Darién jungle between Colombia and Panama,” explains Bonilla.
Dengue and climate change
Two kilometers past the border, on the migratory route, is the village of Jimeritos, a farming community mainly dedicated to banana cultivation. For six years, they have converted their small community hall into a shelter for migrants to rest.
“We are motivated to work with migrants. They leave their countries to seek a better life for their families, and here we give them what we can because we don’t know when we will have the same need,” says Felicita Palencia, a Jimeritos resident trained by the Red Cross to help migrants.
The community hall has a bedroom with a capacity for 12 people, and according to village leaders, there are nights when they receive up to 30 migrants seeking refuge before continuing their journey to the Mexican border in Tecún Umán, located about 540 kilometers at the other end of the country.
The community continues to help despite facing difficulties, such as severe dengue epidemics affecting the Izabal department. In 2023, more than 500 cases were recorded, prompting health authorities to place the region on red alert—a disease that also affects migrants.
On May 2, in the community room, the Red Cross gathered children from Jimeritos’ public primary school to educate them on hygiene and sanitation measures to eliminate the dengue-transmitting mosquito, as well as tools to identify the disease’s symptoms.
Carlos Linares, who has lived in this village hosting migrants for 42 years, tells EFE that their biggest concern is climate change, especially with the approaching rainy season. In years like 2001 and 2020, many houses were destroyed by storms.
The dry season in 2024 has been tough as well, with Guatemala reaching temperatures up to 44 degrees Celsius in March and April. The border region with Honduras was one of the hardest hit by these historic temperatures. “Many migrants arrive dehydrated and badly affected by the sun,” says Felicita Palencia.
A dangerous route
“This part of the road is the most difficult to get to the United States because there are a lot of police and they can send us back to Honduras,” explains Mario Alvarado, a Honduran migrant seeking the “American dream,” to EFE.
In 40-degree heat, Alvarado crossed the border, skirting the Motagua River and African palm plantations to avoid detention by Guatemalan authorities.
This is Alvarado’s third attempt to reach the United States. He travels with compatriot Danny Gámez, with whom he was deported from Texas a few months ago after working as a painter in the U.S.
Like Alvarado and Gámez, thousands of migrants try to cross Guatemala every year. So far in 2024, nearly 8,000 have been detained by security forces for deportation, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM).
“It doesn’t matter how many times they deport us. If there are no conditions to live in Honduras, we will always find a way to leave again,” Alvarado says, before walking away along a plantation path with his companion. EFE
(Agencia EFE produced this article with the collaboration of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), whose work programs with migrants are carried out thanks to support from donors such as the European Union.)