No present nor future in Honduras

Veracruz

I spoke this morning with a woman who works at a shelter in Veracruz, Mexico. According to her estimates, 80% of those taking advantage of the shelter's facilities come from Honduras. The second largest nationality represented is Salvadoran followed by a smattering of people from other countries, including Nicaragua.

After a decrease in the number of migrants earlier this year, the migrant flow has picked up again these last few months. A large number of women and children are arriving each day via thirty or so camionetas.

Their primary destination is still the US but growing numbers are heading to Monterrey, Saltillo, and Sonora. There they can find work in the maquilas and the fields. The number one driver of migration remains violence - gang, organized crime, and inter-familiar. While finding work in Honduras isn't a problem, finding a job that pays enough for a family to live on is near impossible. Small businesses either don't make money or they make enough money to be extorted out of existence. Pay and you can't survive; don't pay and you get roughed up or killed. For these migrants, there is no present nor future in Honduras.