Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) Monday assured that the Honduran migrant caravan stopped and will no longer transit through his country.
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"The group of migrants changed its decision after we warned that the Mexican authorities won't let them enter the country due to the pandemic," AMLO assured as he recalled that the caravan could follow political interests.
"It's not a coincidence that the caravan was organized when we are less than a month away from the U.S. elections," the President said.
Mexico's authorities urged Guatemala's and Honduras' governments to persuade the migrants not to leave their countries.
"Fortunately, our neighboring countries convinced the caravan to cease their journey through Central America," he said.
Opening Mexico's borders "would have posed a health risk for the migrants, and for Mexico's citizens," the National Institute of Migration (INM) President Francisco Garduño said.
On September 30, over 2,500 Central Americans left their country and headed to the U.S. in the first amid-pandemic migrant caravan.
Last Thursday, the caravan broke through a military fence on the Honduras-Guatemala border and stampeded into Guatemalan territory.
"Now only small groups remain on Mexico's southern border," Garduño explained, while he said Guatemala claims to have returned 2,065 caravan participants to Honduras.
On Monday, 80 members of the Honduran caravan were stopped by Guatemala's authorities at Tecun Uman, a town on the border with Mexico.