US: Donald Trump Threatens Mexico with Militarizing The Border

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send military forces to close the southern border if Mexico does not stop the caravan of migrants heading north.

RELATED:
Honduran Migrant Caravan Enters Guatemala After Standoff with Military

In a thread of tweets, Trump threatened Mexico with closing the border, as well as stated that the U.S. will stop "all payments to these countries (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), which seem to have almost no control over their population," as well as saying that the migrant caravan included criminals.

The U.S. president called the caravan of people, looking for opportunities and fleeing from economic difficulties, an "assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS."

Meanwhile, the President-elect of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated Oct. 17 that Mexico is willing to open employment camps to Central American migrants.

This is the second time this year that a so-called "Migrant Walk" has left Honduras in order to escape extreme violence and unemployment in a country that registered over 3,790 homicides in 2017 and seven percent unemployment, according to the Northern Triangle Mobility Initiative.

Between 2014 and 2016 approximately 2,300 people under the age of 23 were killed violently in Honduras, according to the non-governmental organization Casa Alianza. That figure has increased by 53 percent since Juan Orlando Hernandez became president and launched the 2014 Alliance for Prosperity for the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador) in the intent to reduce migratory flow to the north.