SAN PEDRO SULA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people seeking to flee poverty and violence left the Honduran capital on Monday with the plan to march in a caravan towards the United States, defying warnings from President Donald Trump not to will allow entry to your country.
This is the second caravan that has Honduras as a starting point, after a group of migrants left in October from the impoverished nation to cross Central America and all of Mexican territory, to finally reach the border with the United States.
Some 2,500 people from that first caravan are still in Tijuana and another 7,270 returned to the country, according to Honduran authorities.
"I am going determined to find a good job in the United States," said Darwin Pérez, 24 years old. "This is a difficult path but I hope that President Trump's heart will soften and that he will not be so hard and will allow us to enter the United States," he added.
In Honduras, 68% of the population lives in poverty, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), and violence causes an average of 11 homicides daily in the country, according to the Ministry of Security. "Here you can't find a job, I'm a secretary and I graduated 10 years ago and I've never worked in what I trained in," said Heidy Moncada, 31, who plans to travel with her husband, her five- and nine-year-old children, and three other relatives.
"Me and my family go looking for work, if we find it in Guatemala or Mexico we stay there, if not we go to the United States," said Moncada.
The caravans of Central Americans, inspired by last year's mobilizations and organized through social networks, have infuriated Trump, who announced that he will deploy thousands of soldiers to reinforce security on his border with Mexico.
(Reporting by Jorge Cabrera; editing by Adriana Barrera and Carlos Aliaga)
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