Guatemalan police and soldiers used tear gas and batons to push back about 100 Honduran migrants when they tried to pass through a roadblock on the border with Guatemala Sunday.
Many migrants showed visible injuries from batons after the clash with Guatemalan troops.
The migrants were some of roughly 2,000 Hondurans who stopped Saturday night behind the roadblock placed on the two-lane highway to Chiquimula near the village of Vado Hondo.
The majority stayed behind Sunday morning when the clashes between some members of their group and police began. None of the migrants made it through the roadblock.
Hundreds of the migrants have tried to appeal to Guatemalan authorities as fellow Central Americans to allow them to move north.
At least 9,000 migrants from Honduras, including women and young children, had crossed into Guatemala Saturday, less than a week before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Some migrants say they hope that the new administration will be more sympathetic than the Trump administration to their pleas for a better life.
Speaking to Reuters news agency, a Biden transition official discouraged migrants to continue their journey to the United States.
"Overcoming the challenges created by the chaotic and cruel policies of the last four years, and those presented by COVID-19, will take time," the official said, adding that “the journey to the United States remains extraordinarily dangerous, and those in the region should not believe anyone peddling the lie that our border will be open to everyone next month."
Traveling on foot, the migrants say they are willing to brave a journey of thousands of kilometers through Guatemala and Mexico to reach the U.S., escaping poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and natural disasters in their country.
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico have said they are collectively taking security and public health measures because of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent unauthorized border crossings.
Last month, Honduran authorities stopped a caravan before it reached the Guatemalan border. Last year, other caravans were broken up by Guatemala’s authorities before reaching Mexico.
