TEGUGIGALPA – Honduran security forces detained two suspected Honduran coyotes or human traffickers as they were traveling on a bus to 18 immigrants from Cuba and three from Ecuador, a military source reported Thursday.
The immigrants were detained during an operation in the municipality of Goascorán, department of Valle, bordering El Salvador, said The spokesman for the Honduran Armed Forces, José Coello, told journalists.
The immigrants and alleged traffickers were detained by agents of the Lenca Sumpul Joint Task Force, Coello said.
The detained Hondurans were identified as César García and Carlos Alexander Rivera, from 23 and 33 years, respectively, who they will be made available to the authorities of the Public Ministry so that the legal process against them for human trafficking can continue, indi spoke the spokesman for the armed institution.
The Cubans and Ecuadorians were taken to an office of the National Migration Institute (INM), where the authorities will coordinate their return to their countries or give them a safe conduct to cross Honduran territory, to continue their journey to the United States.
Honduras has become in recent decades a transit point for immigrants, especially Cubans and Africans, who cross the Central American countries to try to reach the US
According to official figures, between January and 23 of September of this year a total of 106,476 Immigrants have been detained in Honduras for entering illegally, some of them with the idea of reaching the United States.
The 48 % (51.089) of the immigrants are from Cuba, 31. 3% (33.305) from Venezuela, 6.4% (6.786) from Ecuador and 3.8% (4.099) from Haiti, details an INM report.
The majority of foreigners in mobility They are cared for in the four Irregular Migrant Assistance Centers (CAMI) that the Honduran government has set up in different parts of the country, as well as in centers of the Catholic Church and civil society organizations.
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