Hundreds of Central Americans start the first caravan of the year heading to the US.

Hundreds of migrants Central Americans left on Saturday from Honduras in the first caravan of the year that will seek to reach U.S seeking to improve their living conditions, authorities and local media said, at a time when Washington seeks to reduce the record flow of migrants.

Early Saturday morning, hundreds of Nicaraguans and Hondurans left a bus terminal in the northern city of San Pedro de Sula heading for the Corinto border post, a few steps from Guatemala, where they would start arriving in the afternoon.

If they manage to advance, they still have to travel more than 2,500 kilometers of dangerous roads to reach the border with the United States. On their long journey, migrants often fall victim to human traffickers, who transport them in overcrowded, poorly ventilated trucks.

“We are leaving because there are no jobs in this country, education and health are deplorable in Honduras, that is why we have to look for a better future elsewhere,” Vanessa Cáceres, a woman who was walking with her husband and two minor daughters.

In images broadcast by television stations HCH and Channel 5, the migrants, mostly young, could be seen carrying backpacks on their backs and women with children. Some local Honduran media reported at least 1,000 people in the caravan, while Guatemalan authorities claimed that it was made up of 110 people.

The crisis in Nicaragua, which began in 2018 after the violent repression of a wave of anti-government protests, has forced tens of thousands to seek a better future abroad. In 2021, Costa Rica received a record 53,000 refugee claims from Nicaraguans. Last year, the United States and Mexico reported record numbers of migrants.

For its part, in Honduras, poverty increased to reach 62% of the population, according to official figures, after the economy suffered a recession in 2020 boosted by the coronavirus pandemic and two powerful hurricanes.

Leftist Xiomara Castro, who will assume the Honduran presidency at the end of January, has promised to create jobs, support microenterprises and attract investment to discourage migration, aggravated by widespread public corruption.