The migration route through Central America to the US has been transformed by President Donald Trump's new policy, and was on the table during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's tour of the region in February. Barriers have been erected, flows have dried up, and the unthinkable has happened: The Darien jungle in Panama, the entry point for many migrants, is now deserted. On the other end, at the northern border of Mexico, shelters are empty, according to several people in charge of these facilities. The countries of the region have complied with the American injunction, accepting Washington's directives without batting an eye.

Guatemala has sent 450 police officers and soldiers to guard its 450-kilometer border with Honduras and El Salvador. The country also offers asylum to migrants who request it, although the government has acknowledged that it has so far received fewer than 5,000 applications.

Honduras has agreed to act as a transit country to Venezuela, and the migrants who were briefly detained at the Guantanamo US military base in February have returned to Caracas from Tegucigalpa. Another plane belonging to the Venezuelan airline Conviasa landed in Venezuela from Honduras on Monday, March 24, as deportation flights from the US resumed. This reconfiguration of the route, and Honduras' willingness to serve as a rear base for US migration policy, is sure to create waves in the region.

'Judicial black hole'

The incarceration of 238 Venezuelans, on March 16, in the Terrorism Containment Center, a high-security prison created during Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's first term, has already caused a diplomatic crisis with Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has written to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to "intervene and protect the rights of these innocent people," as he said on TV. Regional channel Telesur showed the families of these prisoners demonstrating in Caracas as soon as their imprisonment was announced, denying any tie with the Tren de Aragua gang.

You have 64.33% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.