The man behind the migrant caravan currently snaking its way towards the US has been revealed as a former Honduran lawmaker and radio host.

Bartolo Fuentes, who lives in the capital Tegucigalpa, said it all began when he tried to help a few dozen migrants band together so they could go north with safety in numbers and support each other.

But things snowballed when HCH, the most-viewed TV news channel in Honduras, incorrectly reported that Fuentes was willing to pay transportation costs for anyone making the journey, he said.

Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran lawmaker turned radio host and migrant worker, has been revealed as the man behind the caravan heading toward the US

Fuentes said he began helping a group of around 200 people gather together to make the journey northward in relative safety, before his efforts snowballed

There are now thought to be around 14,000 Hondurans heading toward the US in at least three distinct groups (pictured, one group in Guatemala)

Hondurans typically had to pay $7,000 to smugglers to take them north, but are now opting to make the journey themselves as part of caravans several thousand strong

Fuentes said it was a news report on Honduran TV which incorrectly said that he would pay passage for migrants which caused the current stampede

Fuentes marched with the first caravan of people (pictured here two days ago, in Mexico) but was detained in Guatemala and sent home

Anchors Eduardo Maldonado and Ariela Cáceres also said Fuentes was willing to provide food for the journey, which can cost people upwards of $7,000 if they are forced to use smugglers.

'After that news program I started to get hundreds of calls, then it took on a life of its own,' Fuentes told the Daily Beast.

'In Honduras, the government wants to minimize why people are leaving - they know they are going to leave and they want to say they are doing so because of lies and the opposition, not the conditions that they created.

'And this pro-government news program played into that messaging, trying to say that there is financing when really people just need to get out.'

When Fuentes began trying to help the migrants move north he said there were around 200 of them, but new estimates now put that number at 14,000, in at least three separate groups.

Fuentes accompanied the first group across the border into Guatemala, but told the Beast he was arbitrarily detained there before being sent home.

He now fears for his safety, as the government has tried to paint him as an agitator trying to disturb the peace - particularly since President Trump threatened to withdraw financial aid worth some $180million per year.

The first migrant caravan has now crossed Guatemala and entered Mexico at the weekend, pushing as far as the town of Huixtla, around 40 miles from the border.

Fuentes now says he fears for his safety in Honduras, where the government has labelled him a disturber of the peace for encouraging people to migrant

Most of the Honduran migrants are now resting in the Mexican city of Huixtla, having walked more than 300 miles from their starting point

A Honduran girl sleeps alongside her parents as the young family attempt to reach the US

Donald Trump has threatened to use the military to turn away migrants at the US border, but that has not stopped people from joining the caravans

According to most estimates, this group numbers around 7,000 people.

Mexican newspaper El Universal reports that there are another 3,000 currently stuck at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico, at Ciudad Hidalgo.

Another 1,000 are known to have crossed from Honduras into Guatemala as part of a second caravan vowing to make it to the US.

Meanwhile, El Universal says, another 3,000 people are trying to make it from Honduras into Guatemala - though the latter country has now stationed guards and barbed wire at a key crossing point used by the first two groups.

The majority of those fleeing Honduras say they are seeking a better life in America, blaming a lack of jobs, rampant corruption and soaring crime for leaving.

In Honduras, around 80 per cent of workers earn below the minimum wage of a few hundreds dollars per month, with government welfare programs doing little to help since most of the money is siphoned off by corrupt officials.

Further compounding this misery is the fact that more than 90 per cent of crimes go unsolved, including thousands of murders each year.

In 2012, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world, and while the government claims there have been significant reductions since then, these figures have not been independently verified.