Meet Bartolo Fuentes, the Honduran ex-lawmaker who helped launch the 7,000-strong caravan marching toward the United States — on a promise he says he never made.

In September, Fuentes began ­coordinating with groups dispersed throughout Honduras seeking to make the trek north.

The initial number of people involved was about 200.

“No one expected this human avalanche,” Fuentes told the Daily Beast in an interview published Tuesday.

What changed everything was a TV report on HCH — a Honduran news channel.

A woman reportedly part of the caravan told TV anchors of Fuentes’ efforts, and she mentioned “assistance.” The anchors then supposedly said Fuentes would pay migrants’ food and transportation costs — which he denied in an interview.

Still, thousands took a chance, since a human-smuggling “coyote” charges upwards of $7,000 to take someone across the US border.

“After that news program, I started to get hundreds of calls, then it took on a life of its own,” Fuentes said.

“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,” he said.

“This is in line with what the United States is saying — that there are false promises being made. 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.”

President Trump has claimed that Democratic politicians are behind the caravan — calling it an “assault” on the United States.

He has threatened to cut off or reduce foreign-aid funding to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for not moving to stop it.

The marchers paused in Mexico Tuesday out of respect for a Honduran migrant who fell from a vehicle Monday and died.

They have reached the Southern Mexican town of Huixtla — 1,200 miles from the Texas border.

Their efforts have inspired others to form caravans and flee Honduras, including one group with roughly 1,000 people.

“Traveling in a group is cheaper and it’s safer,” said Yareli Guillen, a 19-year-old migrant from San Pedro Sula in the new group. “Everything is in God’s hands. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be right back to where I am now.”

Fuentes had been traveling with the larger caravan from Honduras, but was detained when the migrants reached Guatemala and was deported.

“This is a battle,” Fuentes said, “between the government and the ones who want to fight — for the truth and for a better country that people can live in.”