Honduran authorities on Wednesday detained a dozen migrants from Cuba traveling in a van on a highway in the south of the Central American country and arrested a suspected human trafficker who was taking them to the border with Guatemala.
The Honduran National Police said in a press release that the Cubans were arrested in the city of the same name, Choluteca, in the south of the country.
A dozen Cubans were transported in the van who entered the country illegally and their final destination is the United States, he added.
The vehicle was intercepted by agents from the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit, which reports to the Police Directorate of Investigations, and the Special Tactical Operations Group.
The suspected trafficker, also known as “Coyote,” is a 33-year-old man who lives in the municipality of El Triunfo, Choluteca, on the border with Nicaragua, Honduran police said.
The man will be charged with the “blatant crime of illegal human trafficking,” for which both he and the vehicle were presented, he added.
The detainee “carried in his vehicle 10 Cuban nationals who intend to cross the border into Guatemala to continue their migratory route to the United States,” the National Police said.
The Caribbean people have been placed in the hands of Honduras’ National Institute for Migration (INM), where they will have the option to pay a fine equivalent to $220 to expedite their legal exit from the country.
Honduras has become a transit country for migrants in recent decades, particularly Cubans, who enter the country illegally through “blind spots” by traffickers who don’t always get them to the Guatemalan border.
According to the INM, more than 16,000 migrants have been arrested in Honduras so far in 2022 for entering the country illegally to reach the United States.
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