Guatemala last week refused to allow a caravan of more than 600 people who attempted to cross the border into the country in an effort to reach the United States, ABC News reports.
According to the country's foreign ministry, the caravan of 622 people is mostly comprised of Honduran and Nicaraguan adult men, with about a quarter being children. They were apprehended at the Guatemalan border and returned to their countries of origin.
"We can't go on another day here ... I want to get to the United States," one Nicaraguan man told Reuters, saying he was planning on leaving his country the next week.
"We know this is a very hard road and we ask God and the Honduran government to please accompany us to the border with Guatemala and not put more roadblocks," added Ubaldo López, a Nicaraguan man who said he was hopeful the U.S. government "will open the doors to us."
"People are being returned, everything in order, humanely," Carlos Emilio Morales, general director of the Guatemalan Migration Institute, told ABC News. "We are protecting our borders; we are protecting the health of all Guatemalans."
© 2022 Newsmax. All rights reserved.