Guatemalan Official: Caravan Used Babies, Women, Elderly As 'Human Shields'

CNS News ^ | October 31, 2018 | 7:19 AM EDT | Susan Jones

[E. Pluribus Unum]

(CNSNews.com) - Guatemalan security forces were not able to hold back the thousands of people, many from Honduras, who broke through a chain-link fence into Mexico earlier this month.

Videos posted online show the moment when the border was breached and members of the "caravan" – the first of two -- dashed into Mexico, on their way to the United States.

Why couldn't Guatemalan security forces hold them back? Fox News's Laura Ingraham asked Mario Duarte, the Guatemalan Secretary of Strategic Intelligence, on Tuesday night:

"Central American countries, we have these agreements since 2006 or 2008 that our citizens can freely move between the countries as long as they carry their national I.D. and go through a regular immigration process or a border checkpoints,” Duarte responded.

“Now, these caravans as you have seen from different videos, it was a very, very big group of over 3,000 people. And Guatemalan security forces, let me say really quickly, we put over 2,000 police officers and close to 1,000 military--"

"Yeah, But you couldn't hold them back, Mr. Secretary," Ingraham interrupted.

"We tried very hard, as you could have seen in the videos," Duarte responded. “The issue is that these people put babies, women and the elderly at the front, almost like human shields, so when they started pressing them against our security personnel we had to do all our best to protect their lives, to protect their human rights and protect their dignity as well," Duarate said.

[MNDude]

So no we learn that this Caravan also includes elderly who are doing the amazing feat of walking almost 2,000 miles in about 2 or 3 weeks.

[jch10]

The same tactic will be used at the US border.

[TangoLimaSierra]

I don’t want to ‘fire’ on any of these people. I want to change the law so ANY person entering our county illegally will NEVER be granted citizenship for any reason.

No! That's no deterrent. We already have millions who don't plan to become citizens and are eating up welfare benefits and committing crimes.
No more.

[zeugma]

Translated from the Spanish: "We put on a good show to keep getting all that foreign aid in our numbered bank accounts. Hell, we had to let these dudes get through. Their remittances support our mistresses' lavish lifestyle.....no money, no nookie."

This is far more true than most want to admit. Corruption is a part of their culture.

[Windflier]

"Mario Duarte, the Guatemalan Secretary of Strategic Intelligence:

...it was a very, very big group of over 3,000 people. And Guatemalan security forces, let me say really quickly, we put over 2,000 police officers and close to 1,000 military--"

So the Guatemalan government deployed one law enforcement officer for every invader, and they still couldn't hold them back.

Had they used nightsticks and handcuffs on the military aged males, they could have stopped that mob in its tracks. Why didn't they?

[Windflier]

Same tactic’s

Don't look now, but your apostrophe is hanging out.

[drpix]

I like the razor wire, armed troops and tanks we know they're sending, but I expect/hope our guys will take a page from how the Israeli army has dealt with the Palestinian mob attacks on their border.

Have plenty of tear-gas, skunk-water and rubber bullets and use them on any mob (men/women/children) when they are not in a live-fire situation. Even unarmed mobs of women and children should never get up close to the police/military lines. Mobs must be dispersed long before that and leave only the stray rioters to the police/military lines.

And always have the real firepower on hand and ready to use the instant the mob escalates the situation.

[doug from upland]

The military will have to use the water cannons at about ten percent

[MrRelevant]

Sounds familiar- who else uses human shields? hmmm?