While the Mexican government militarized its borders, Guatemalan security forces on Monday cleared a road of hundreds of people in a mostly Honduran migrant caravan that had camped out overnight when authorities barred it from advancing toward the United States.
Hurricanes Eta and Iota have caused about US$10 billion in damages in Honduras and affected more than 4 million people, the Central American country's foreign minister said on Monday as he called for international support.
Royal Navy helicopters have flown vital reconnaissance missions over devastated Honduras as relief operations continue in the wake of Hurricane Eta and Iota. Severe flooding and landslides following the two catastrophic storms have left millions of Hondurans displaced and isolated without food and clean water.
The Honduran president has said he and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus. The Central American nation has registered just under 10,000 COVID-19 infections, according to the health ministry, and 330 deaths.
US President Donald Trump has put Mexico and Central American nations under pressure to accept a series of migration agreements that aim to shift the burden of dealing with asylum-seekers on to them, and away from the United States.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez emerged battered from the trial and conviction of his brother last Friday after the US Justice Department concluded that the evidence showed narco-traffickers had bribed the president and his party.
A New York court convicted the Honduran president's brother of drug trafficking Friday, a verdict immediately rejected by the Central American leader as opponents called for his resignation.
United States prosecutors alleged on Wednesday that convicted Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán personally gave US$1 million in bribes to the brother of Honduras' president to pass on to the Central American leader, who swiftly denied wrongdoing.
The former first lady of Honduras Rosa Elena Bonilla, wife of ex-president Porfirio Lobo, was sentenced on Wednesday to 58 years in jail on charges of fraud and undue appropriation of funds, a spokesman for the nation's highest court said.
The United States will seek migration deals with El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama, akin to last week's with Guatemala, to curb emigration from Central America, a senior US official said Thursday.