The caravan of refugees from Central
America has dominated the headlines of newspapers and the discussion
among talking heads on television as of late. Most have been focused
on the physical brutality of military personnel, dispatched by
President Donald Trump to the border, firing canisters of tear gas
and rubber bullets into the caravan of mostly women and children and some men who were
armed with nothing but rocks. However, understanding the root causes
of the current crisis requires examining the decades of American
interventionist policies in Central America on behalf of dictatorial,
oppressive, human-rights abusing regimes. Unfortunately, Trump's
response to the refugee crisis reveals his ignorance and cruelty and
will only worsen the crisis, causing even more refugees to travel in
future caravans to the U.S. searching for hope and dignity which
Americans so easily take for granted.
Guatemala
In 1954, the U.S. assisted in
implementing a coup
against a democratically-elected government which supported land
reform in order to benefit the mostly indigenous working class. This
agenda of the legitimate Guatemalan government was a problem for
various American economic and political interests, including the
US-based United Fruit Company which profited off exploiting
impoverished workers and bribing government officials for
preferential treatment in all kinds of aspects. As a part of the
illegal coup, CIA installed a military junta which the U.S. supported
for decades despite ample evidence of human rights abuses.
El Salvador
During the 1980s
the U.S.-backed authoritarian
alliance of nations, elitist oligarchs and military generals had
ruled El Salvador for decades, creating extreme poverty, leaving the
population desperate for escape. The U.S. backed the oppressive
right-wing Salvadoran regime against a leftist uprising. Over 75,000
Salvadorans died as a result of the civil war, most of them perishing
at the hands of the military and its notorious death squads. Today,
amidst soul-crushing poverty, inequality and a lack of opportunity,
forensic experts are still unearthing corpses of women, children and
elderly who were mercilessly murdered by the Salvadoran army on
behalf of the irrational American right-wing battle against
communism.
Honduras
In Honduras,
during the 1980s, the U.S. government used the country as a pawn in
its war against the imaginary threat of communism. The U.S.-backed
Contras used Honduras as a staging
ground to fight in the Nicaraguan civil war. The Contras, a
far-right guerrilla group, was backed by the Reagan administration,
despite the CIA having already been aware of the group's atrocious
human rights abuses.
Power vacuum leads to organized
crime and extreme violence
In the wake of
U.S. interventionism in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras,
otherwise known as the Northern Triangle, organized criminal
enterprises were allowed to thrive. Now, the Northern Triangle has
the highest
rates of female homicide in the world. Rape is rampant and
children are taken from parents to be trafficked on behalf of
criminal organizations. Innocent individuals and families face
extortion and threats of death on a daily basis at the hands of the
murderous criminal groups which were left empowered as a result of misguided American
meddling in Central America. Nowadays, it is uncommon for even young
children to have never witnessed a murder in the Northern
Triangle. It is no wonder large numbers of refugees travel in
caravans northward every year searching for a better life for their
families.
Trump immigration policy worsens
refugee crisis
Unfortunately, not
only is Trump's policy agenda inhumane and cruel, it will also make
the refugee crisis worst, causing even more caravans of asylum
seekers in the future. In May 2018, the Trump administration
announced it was canceling
the protected status of approximately 300,000 immigrants,
including 86,000 Hondurans who had been living and working in the
United States for decades in order to send money back to their
families in their home country. Remittances back home from immigrants
working in the U.S. play a significant role in the economic
development in Central American countries. In fact, remittances
make up 18 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for Honduras and 17
percent for El Salvador. Therefore, the extreme poverty in Central
America will worsen, inspiring even more people to make the dangerous
trek northward in the next caravan.
Trump stance on guns increases
violence in Central America
Along with Trump's
immigration policy, his and the Republican Party's policy regarding
gun control is also worsening the refugee crisis by creating more gun
violence in Central America. Right-wing opposition to gun control, at
the behest of the NRA, has made guns more plentiful, resulting in
thousands
of illicit firearms being smuggled into Mexico every day. Most of
these guns end up in the possession of Mexican
drug cartels. The guns then eventually end up in the hands of
Central American criminal organizations who use the American-made
guns to terrorize innocent people in the name of expanding their
highly profitable drug empires via smuggling cocaine back into the
U.S.
Those in America
who have recently been echoing Trump's racist, fear-mongering
rhetoric in response to the arrival of the most recent refugee
caravan from Central America, should ask themselves what they would
do if the roles were switched. What if their loved ones and children
risked being murdered, raped and kidnapped on a daily basis with
practically no opportunity to improve their quality of life? They
would probably join a caravan to escape in search of life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
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