Mesoamerica authorities take advantage of COVID-19 to stop migration

By incarni pondado (@encarpin), independent photojournalist, and Duncan Tucker (@duncantucker), press manager for the Americas of Amnesty International

Upon arriving at the Amatillo, a modest town on the border between Honduras and El Salvador, several people quickly swirling around the cars.They offer all kinds of services: monitor the car, clean the crystals, load the bags, change money, drugs, migratory forms, pass through the river without sealing migration, and a new service: the negative PCR test of COVID-19.

The document seems the most true of the illicit market.Includes seal, signatures, coloring colored, and without having a swab to the bottom of the nostrils.All for an accessible price and much cheaper than the real test.

"This is the border," says one of the sellers, "here you get what you need".

For years, people fleeing violence, repression, economic inequality and the effects of the climatic crisis in Central America have faced terrifying barriers on their way.They have risked extortion, kidnappings and sexual violence, among other dangers, in their attempts to reach a safe place where they can reconstruct their lives.Now, at the time of Covid-19, the route is even more complicated.Not only should they avoid being infected, but they also have to deal with prohibitive costs of evidence, and the corrupt officials who extort them have them or not, all while navigating complicated land where governments are taking measures to make migration difficult.

PCR tests: a lucrative border business

The car of a photojournalist affiliated with the inclusive mobility alliance in the pandemic - a coalition of more than 30 civil society organizations of Mexico and Central America to demand protection for migrants in the context of the pandemic - approaches the border crossing inAmatillo.When filling the output document and sealing the passport, the car advances to the international bridge, leaving Honduras behind.

In the middle of the bridge over the Goascorán River that divides both countries, a border agent from El Salvador makes it download and asks if it takes the PCR test."Yes," answers the journalist and shows him the original certificate.

"This does not work," says the agent and goes with the role to check with one of the doctors in the migratory building.Upon returning, he confirms that the test is not valid, since it is not a “PCR in real time”, but a “antigen PCR”, so it prevents the passage and forces him to return to Honduras.

The sale of false negative evidence of COVID-19 is common in the amatillo on the Enter Honduras and El Salvador border.Photo: Encarni Pindado

In the middle of the bridge, a person who proposes to solve the "problem" is approaching the car, providing one of those false copies "with original seal" for 70 dollars, almost half the price of the authentic test.Everything happens in front of the immigration authorities of both countries.None seem to import him.

One of the people who works on the border line of the Amatillo is called Pablo."Here we work on what comes out, helping people, tourists," he says.Before the pandemic, Paul achieved enough money to keep his family, but after the border closed for five months for the outbreak of Covid-19, he was forced to survive with the remittances sent by his relatives who live in statesJoined.That is why you have decided to diversify your business: "Before you only passed with your document, passport, cell, now you have to carry a Covid test, the passport, and if you do not walk it, you cannot enter El Salvador or Honduras".

Pablo and his colleagues are dedicated to "help" people who do not have such documents.He explains that “there are some boys who are in charge of doing these procedures, it is not known where some documents take out, and the tourist passes.They do not make the tests, they only give you the document you occupy, they cost 20 or 30 pains ".

He gets tests about six people a day, he says.But it's barely 8 to.m.And he has already "helped" three people, thanks to the migratory agent who works in the offices and usually happens to customers, in exchange for a monetary collaboration.According to Pablo, approximately 20 percent of people crossing the border do not carry the proper Covid-19 test.

Many people who are going to travel to El Salvador or Nicaragua perform Covid-19 tests in the El Buen Samaritan laboratory in Choluteca, Honduras.Photo: Encarni Pindado

Juan Manuel Martínez is the doctor in charge of the Laboratory El Buen Samaritano in the Honduran city of Choluteca.“Here are patients who go for both El Salvador, and for Nicaragua and those who go to Guatemala.Many of the people travel for work and to less quantity to visit their relatives, who have not seen them for many months for the COVID, ”he says."If there are people who have returned them from both borders of Guasave and Amatillo, and they come here to test, with the results we give they have no problem to cross the border".

According to Martínez, the good Samaritano charges half of what most laboratories charge in Honduras: "We watch over the pocket of those who are going to travel and those who want to know if they have the virus or not".Martínez does not know that there are people offering false PCR tests on the border."I hope the authorities put hands in the matter because it is not correct, deceive the population and the risk of a positive person, between the country and infects the population".

The price to make a PCR in Honduras ranges between $ 125 and $ 145, depending on the type of test, equivalent to approximately one or two weeks of minimum wage work in the country.Hardly someone who migrates can afford a PCR to cross the border on a regular basis, much less if he travels with his family.

Pandemia as a migratory containment tool

Between 1998 and 2017, Honduras was the second country in the world most affected by climatic disasters, according to the 2019 Global Climate Risk Index.This trend continues to plague the country.In November, already in full pandemic, Honduras was devastated by two consecutive tropical storms: ETA and IOT.According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, storms damaged 62.000 houses, affecting more than 4 million people and leaving 92.000 in shelters.After the strong economic impact of the pandemic and the estimated damage in 1.879 million dollars that caused ETA and Iota, the economy of Honduras decreased a 10.5% in 2020.

Migrants, mostly Central Americans, cross the border at a blind spot, from the technique in Guatemala to Corozal Border in Mexico.Photo: Encarni Pindado

For mid -January more than 9.000 people, mostly affected by ETA and Iota, formed the first 2021 migrant caravan.They tried to cross Guatemala to get to Mexico and finally to the United States.

Guatemala is part of the Central American Free Mobility Agreement, or CA-4, a treaty that establishes the free transit of Guatemalan people, Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans, with only their identity document, without the need for passport or visa.However, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has stigmatized migrants trymaking human shields with women and the elderly, and the Guatemalans are violating us ”.

Facing this situation, Father Mauro Verezeletti, director of the Migrant House in Guatemala City, regrets that “more and more countries are preventing the passage of migrants and refugees."They are turning their policies towards racism, xenophobia and discrimination against migrants".

Migrants cross the Usumacinta River in vessels that transport Guatemala passengers to Mexico.Photo: Encarni Pindado

The caravan that left Honduras did not reach beyond Chiquimula, a small city southeast of Guatemala.There, on January 17 and 18, the Guatemalan Army and Police arrested several people and used tear porras and gas against members of the caravan.Many people were returned to the border and the caravan disintegrated.The Inter -American Human Rights Commission condemned the excessive use of force by the Police and the Guatemalan Army during the operations.He also urged the states of the region to “adopt measures to address the structural problems generatedPersonal integrity, to seek and receive asylum, and to the non -return ".

In Mexico, authorities have also taken measures to restrict migration.In October, the National Institute of Migration (INM) warned that foreign persons who enter without complying with health protection measures to avoid contagions of COVID-19 could be sanctioned with up to 10 years in jail.Then, in March 2021, the Government announced the installation of new inspection filters on the border with Guatemala, equipped with drones and night vision mechanisms, and the prohibition of land crossings for non -essential activities for at least 30 days and authorized theuse of force to dissolve unauthorized groups, such as a caravan.The day after the announcement, hundreds of members of the National Guard and the INM marched through the streets of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas, in an unusual and symbolic parade.

The Mexican government has disconnected the measures against COVID-19 on its southern border of migratory actions, but both coincided with reports of migration increases from Central America and pressure from the US government to stop it.In addition, the security report that the Mexican government presented on March 22, revealed that, since February 19, 2021, 8,715 military assigned to the “Development and Migration Plan” had been deployed at the borders - more than the number ofelements assigned to any other activity, including security tasks, eradication of illicit plantations and the fight against the illicit fuel market.

Hondurans migrants walk through the Lacandona jungle in Chiapas, Mexico.Photo: Encarni Pindado

On March 29, a Mexican soldier shot and killed a Guatemalan man at the border crossing, demonstrating the risk of commissioning civil security and migratory functions to military.The army admitted that it had been "an erroneous reaction by military personnel, because there was no aggression" against him.

Days later, on April 12, the government of President Joe Biden announced that he had reached an agreement with Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras so that the three countries deploy troops on their respective borders “to hinder the trip and the crossing of the borders”.

Flee in the time of Coronavirus

When Luis Pineda left Nicaragua, he never thought about becoming a PCR to cross the border.Like many people in need of refuge, he put his identification, some money, clothing, a toothbrush, and left in a backpack.

Pineda says that she was a truck driver in Nicaragua, so she had driving friends to whom she asked to be transferred to the border between Guatemala and Mexico.Since Pineda had not sealed his passport when leaving Nicaragua and did not carry PCR test, he was forced to hire the services of a guide that crossed the border between El Salvador and Guatemala, where his truck driver was waiting for him.

He walked on the bridge when a border police stopped him and asked him about his documents and the Covid-19 test.Pineda replied “I have been fleeing and in Nicaragua I can not take out covid proof, because that is in the hands of the government.As I am persecuted politician, I cannot go to Government Clinics, so I had to leave like this, with nothing ”.

Luis Pineda fled the human rights crisis in Nicaragua.Photo: Encarni Pindado

According to Pineda's testimony, the policeman suggested "fixing it" to allow him to continue his way and threatened to deport him.Seeing without options, he agreed to pay to continue his trip."‘ Here we are seven, I think that as 250 is good, "said the agent and had to give them $ 250, because it was that or they returned to me," says Pineda.

Rubén Figueroa, southern-southeast coordinator of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement, states that corruption related to COVID-19 tests has become another factor that encourages migrants from Central America to cross borders irregularly.

"These people are victims of corrupt authorities for being migrants," says Figueroa.“The Health Emergency of COVID-19 has become [into] a weapon in the hands of the authorities to repress, stop and deport migrants, and for corrupt authorities, who have always been there, extorting and trafficking migrants.Pandemia is another opportunity to increase the ‘quota’, which under threats require migrants to continue their trip ”.

In the case of Pineda, once he had paid the agents, he crossed the bridge according to his indications and arrived in Guatemala.He went to the parking lot and began to eat while he waited for his friend to seal his passport."When the migration agents arrived and they saw me eating, they began to ask me what truck I brought, and I told them that I was persecuted politician and they asked me the passport seal and the Covid test," says Pineda."But hey, there were a little more aware and they took away 150 dollars, to relieve them for soda.".________________________

Encarni pondado is an independent photojournalist.Duncan Tucker is a press head for Amnesty International.This report was produced in collaboration with the Inclusive Mobility Alliance in Pandemia, an initiative led by Amnesty International, the Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador and the Institute for Women in Migration, in which more than 30 organizations of theCivil Society of Mexico and Central America.The alliance aims to demand protection for migrants in the context of pandemic.

This report was originally published in Newsweek in Spanish