“With money everything can be settled”: the ordeal of Nicaraguan migrants in Honduras
“With money everything can be settled”: for the thousands of migrants from Nicaragua wishing each year to reach the United States with the hope of starting a new life there, the customs officers of neighboring Honduras constitute the first obstacle to their long and exhausting journey.
Fleeing political and economic turmoil under the government of President Daniel Ortega, dozens of Nicaraguans, unemployed or on poverty wages, leave the small Central American country every day, leaving behind families and possessions, even getting into debt sometimes, to try to reach the United States.
Yesica Centeno, 42, is one of the passengers on a bus that arrived at the Honduran border post of El Guasaule at the end of the year following a three-hour trip from Managua, and which must continue to Guatemala.
“It is possible that some of you will have problems with your vaccination certificates or your travel documents”, immediately warns an agent on board. “If that happens, don’t argue with the Honduran ‘migra’ (the customs officers). Come see me and I’ll help you. But you already know that with money everything can be settled,” he continues. address of travellers.
Accompanied by her two teenage children, Yesica Centeno is rightly informed that she cannot enter Honduras due to a problem with her Covid vaccination certificate.
“It’s all regarding money. They tell you that for a wrong letter or number in a document, you cannot continue the journey. The only option they give you is to settle with money” , she testified to AFP.
A quarter of Nicaraguans live in poverty, according to official figures. Central America’s smallest economy has been mired in a political and economic crisis since 2018. Its president has been criticized for his growing authoritarianism, the arrest of dozens of political rivals and the imprisonment of hundreds of opponents.
– $40 each –
Because of this political and social crisis, Nicaraguans are migrating en masse, particularly to the United States. In power since 2007, President Ortega believes that this massive exodus is the consequence of the American sanctions imposed on his country.
Border agents “take advantage” of the critical situation of Nicaraguans, regrets Yesica Centeno, on her way to the United States where her husband migrated a year ago.
Twenty bus passengers will have to pay 40 dollars each in order to be allowed to enter Honduras, notes AFP. Others will have to shell out $100 or even $250.
“Almost all of us have been deducted 40 dollars, it’s not fair,” complained Eriselda Soza, a 32-year-old Nicaraguan.
For those who arrive without a Covid vaccination certificate – mandatory to enter Honduras – the “fine” is 250 dollars, says another passenger on condition of anonymity.
In total, Honduran officials extorted $1,300 from the passengers on the bus, the agent on board serving as their intermediary. Presumably, the same fate was reserved for the Nicaraguan migrants from the sixteen other buses parked nearby.
According to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 164,000 Nicaraguans attempted to enter the United States without valid documents in 2022, up three times from a year earlier.
Questioned by AFP, the Honduran authorities assured that they were not aware of any irregularities at the border post.
“The National Institute of Migration does not charge entry into the country, we are once morest any illegal collection,” said spokesman Wilson Gomez. “If it is established that fees are collected, the Institute will seize the prosecution to investigate”.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro, elected last January, promised a “war on extortion” and signed an agreement in December with the United Nations in New York to form a commission to investigate corruption.
