tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/honduras-11996/articlesHonduras – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:50:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259912024-03-28T12:50:35Z2024-03-28T12:50:35ZThe amazing story of the man who created the latest narco-state in the Americas, and how the United States helped him every step of the way − until now<p>When Juan Orlando Hernández was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/honduras-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-corruption-trial-7c43423f12ff71859c370be2fc6ac5b0">convicted by a federal jury</a> in Manhattan in early March 2024, it marked a spectacular fall from grace: from being courted in the U.S. as a friendly head of state to facing the rest of his life behind bars, convicted of cocaine importation and weapons offenses.</p>
<p>“Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed with virtual impunity,” said <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland</a> following the jury conviction. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">Anne Milgram</a>, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, added: “When the leader of Honduras and the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel work hand-in-hand to send deadly drugs into the United States, both deserve to be accountable.”</p>
<p>The conviction was a victory for the Justice Department and the DEA. During Hernández’s two terms in office, from 2014 to 2022, he and his acolytes transported more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">according to U.S. prosecutors</a>. The former head of state now faces a mandatory sentence of up to 40 years in prison; sentencing is scheduled for June 26. </p>
<p>But there’s more to this story. </p>
<p>As I explore in the book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/21st-Century-Democracy-Promotion-in-the-Americas-Standing-up-for-the-Polity/Heine-Weiffen/p/book/9780415626378">21st Century Democracy Promotion in the Americas: Standing Up for the Polity</a>,” written in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/people/bw4844">Open University’s Britta Weiffen</a>, Honduras is a tragic example of what happens when a country becomes a narco-state. While its people suffer the consequences – the World Bank reports that about <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview">half the country currently lives under poverty</a> – its leaders grow rich through the drugs trade.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the way Hernández came to power and maintained that position for so long could provide “Exhibit A” in any indictment of U.S. policy toward Central America – and Latin America more generally – over the past few decades. </p>
<h2>Growing ties with cartels</h2>
<p>Up to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-arrests-united-states-honduras-extradition-207d739fe73c844ad5cf182eec030a8a">Hernández’s arrest in Tegucigalpa</a>, the Honduran capital, and extradition to the United States in January 2022, his biggest enabler had been none other than the U.S. government itself. </p>
<p>Presidents <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/15/president-obama-announces-presidential-delegation-honduras-attend-inaugu">Barack Obama</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/honduras-president-narcotrafficking-hernandez/2021/02/11/1fa96044-5f8c-11eb-ac8f-4ae05557196e_story.html">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/18/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-honduran-president-juan-orlando">and Joe Biden</a> all backed Hernández and allowed him to inflict enormous harm to Honduras and to the United States in the process.</p>
<p>How so? To answer this question, some background is needed. </p>
<p>On June 28, 2009, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/28/honduras-coup-president-zelaya">a classic military coup took place</a> in Honduras. In the wee hours of the morning, while still in his pajamas, President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya was unceremoniously escorted by armed soldiers from his home and <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lt-honduras-divided-070709-2009jul07-story.html">flown to a neighboring country</a>. The coup leaders alleged that, by calling for a referendum on reforming the Honduran Constitution, the government was moving toward removing the one-term presidential term limit enshrined in the country’s charter and opening the door to authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Initially, then-President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55S5J2/">protested the coup</a> and took measures against those responsible – the right-wing opponents of Zelaya. </p>
<p>But the administration eventually relented and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN07503526/">allowed the coup leaders to prevail</a>, largely due to pressure from Republicans, who saw Zelaya as being <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interview/honduran-politics-and-chavez-factor">too close to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez</a>, whose leftist agenda was deemed by the GOP as a threat to U.S. interests. </p>
<p>The coup-makers simply ran the clock against the upcoming election date and installed their own candidate in the presidency, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/30/honduras-lobo-president">Porfirio Lobo of the National party</a>, whose son Fabio was also later convicted of cocaine trafficking. </p>
<h2>Washington looks the other way</h2>
<p>Lobo laid the foundations of Honduras as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56947595">new century’s first narco-state</a>, allowing drug cartels to infiltrate the highest echelons of government and the security apparatus as cocaine trade became an increasingly central plank of the country’s economy.</p>
<p>All the while, the U.S. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/american-funding-honduran-security-forces-blood-on-our-hands">pumped tens of millions of dollars</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/should-the-u-s-still-be-sending-military-aid-to-honduras">into building up Honduras’ police and military</a>, despite widespread allegations of being engaged in corruption, complicit in the drugs trade and engaged in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/honduras">human rights abuses</a>.</p>
<p>The dollars continued to flow when Lobo was succeeded in 2013 by his buddy and fellow National party member, Juan Orlando Hernández.</p>
<p>In 2017, Hernández – an ardent supporter of the 2009 coup – ran for a second term after the Supreme Court of Honduras <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0NE2T9/">pronounced this to be perfectly legal</a>.</p>
<p>Many Hondurans believe Hernández <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">stole the November 2017 elections</a>. The vote count was suspended in the middle of the night as Hernández was running behind, and when the polls opened in the morning, he <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">miraculously emerged as a winner</a>.</p>
<p>Despite widespread allegations of election fraud, the U.S. quickly recognized the result, congratulating <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/22/politics/us-honduras-election-results/index.html">Hernández on his win</a>.</p>
<p>Emboldened by his success, Hernández continued to build up Honduras as the new century’s first narco-state of the Americas.</p>
<p>In 2018, the president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former member of the Honduran Parliament, was arrested in the United States for his association with the Cartel de Sinaloa, the Mexican drug cartel. This entity valued his services so much that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-honduran-congressman-tony-hern-ndez-sentenced-life-prison-and-ordered-forfeit">they named a particular strain of cocaine after him</a>, stamping the bags as “TH.” Tony Hernández was convicted on four charges in 2019, sentenced to 30 years in prison, and has been in U.S. federal prison ever since. </p>
<p>President Hernández denied any association with the cartel, but the evidence pointed to the contrary. As <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/03/18/a-court-case-rocks-the-president-of-honduras">reported in The Economist</a>, in a New York City trial, one accused drug trafficker alleged that Hernández took bribes for “helping cocaine reach the United States.” Another witness testified that the president had taken two bribes in 2013, before being elected; a former cartel leader testified that the president had been paid $250,000 to protect him from being arrested.</p>
<h2>‘Complicit or gullible’</h2>
<p>Given Hernández’s history in Honduras, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">repeated claims of U.S. government officials</a> that they simply didn’t know of his crimes ring hollow.</p>
<p>Honduras became a narco-state, in part, because U.S. policymakers looked the other way as it did so. They embraced Hernández because he was ideologically more palatable and subservient to Washington’s wishes compared with his rival, Zelaya. But as the trial verdict in Manhattan makes clear, it was a decision with disastrous consequences.</p>
<p>As one State Department official put it, “Today’s verdict makes all of us who collaborated with (Hernández) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">look either complicit or gullible</a>.” </p>
<p>The latter may be the more charitable assessment. But the truth is more uncomfortable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a member of the Party for Democracy in Chile and and affiliated with the Foro de Political Exterior, a Chilean foreign policy think tank.</span></em></p>Washington looked the other way as coup leaders and drugs cartels conspired to turn Honduras into a center of the cocaine trade.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235132024-02-21T17:28:02Z2024-02-21T17:28:02ZThe 100-hour war between El Salvador and Honduras is famous for starting with a football match – the truth is more complicated<p>A recent football match in Hong Kong has flared geopolitical tensions. A sell-out crowd was left disappointed when Inter Miami’s Argentinian superstar, Lionel Messi, did not come onto the field. Their disappointment soon turned to anger as, just days later, Messi played in another game in Japan.</p>
<p>Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and frustrated fans interpreted the act as a sign of disrespect, suggesting that there were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/08/lionel-messi-injury-return-japan-anger-china-benching-unfit">political reasons</a> for Messi’s absence. Two Argentina friendlies that were scheduled to take place in China in March <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/09/sport/china-cancels-argentina-match-messi-backlash-intl-hnk/index.html">have been cancelled</a>. Some Hong Kong officials have demanded an “explanation and apology” from the player, while fans <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/china/lionel-messi-china-backlash-hong-kong-japan-miami-intl-hnk/index.html">claimed</a> that Messi should no longer be welcome in China.</p>
<p>Football has flared up tensions before, with lasting political consequences. In 1990, a game between Zagreb’s Dinamo team and Belgrade’s Red Star <a href="https://www.croatiaweek.com/33-years-ago-today-the-most-famous-derby-never-played/">erupted into violence</a> between fans and the police. The violence is believed by some to have sparked the ensuing Croatian war of independence (1991–95). </p>
<p>But one case in particular holds the reputation for a war that was started over a series of football matches. </p>
<p>In 1969, El Salvador and neighbouring Honduras played each other three times in the qualifying stages of the 1970 Fifa World Cup. The two matches that took place in Tegucigalpa (June 8) and San Salvador (June 15) were marred by violence between fans. </p>
<p>On the same day as the third match, in Mexico City on June 29, the Salvadoran government cut diplomatic ties with Honduras. Military action began two weeks later with aerial bombardment and a ground invasion, before coming to an end after a ceasefire was negotiated four days later. For its brevity, the conflict is known as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27868774">100-hour war</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, it would be silly to look for the causes of war in an ugly tackle, or in questionable decisions by referees. More than silly, to reduce the causes of war to a football match is disrespectful to the memories of the thousands of civilians displaced and killed in the conflict. </p>
<p>For that reason, as pivotal as these matches might have been for that war, it is essential to understand the broader context in which such an escalation of conflict becomes possible.</p>
<h2>The war of the dispossessed</h2>
<p>El Salvador is a fraction of the size of Honduras. But, despite the difference in area, El Salvador has a much larger population. At the start of the 20th century, Salvadoran farmers began migrating to Honduras in large numbers, primarily because of the greater availability of land across the border.</p>
<p>By the 1960s, the issue of land ownership had fuelled social tension in Honduras against the large population of Salvadoran migrants. The National Federation of Farmers and Livestock Farmers of Honduras was created to promote a land reform aimed at <a href="https://html.rincondelvago.com/la-guerra-no-fue-de-futbol_eddy-jimenez-perez.html">expelling Salvadoran peasants</a> from Honduran land. </p>
<p>This allowed large property owners, including foreign companies like the US-based United Fruit Company, to increase their ownership share of arable land. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of Central America." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577015/original/file-20240221-20-1haedq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Honduras is roughly five times as large as El Salvador.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/central-america-map-150994196">Rainer Lesniewski/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a coup in 1963, the then Honduran president, General Oswaldo López Arellano, pursued the interests of these agrarian elites through the suppression of political opposition and systematic institutionalised violence. </p>
<p>Arellano’s brutal repression of peasant movements, with a specific nationalist sentiment mobilised against Salvadorans, <a href="https://catalogosiidca.csuca.org/Record/UCR.000022943/Description">caused the displacement</a> of thousands of rural workers in the years before those football matches. This is why <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/87/3/889/95948?redirectedFrom=fulltext">research</a> on the topic usually refers to the conflict as the “war of the dispossessed”. </p>
<h2>Escalating conflict</h2>
<p>The level of violence against Salvadorans led the government in San Salvador to formally accuse Honduras of genocide. The <a href="https://www.diariocolatino.com/una-guerra-breve-y-amarga/">communication</a> sent by the Salvadoran chancellor to inform Tegucigalpa of the severed diplomatic ties in 1969 clearly frames the conflict in these broader terms.</p>
<p>“In this republic [Honduras] there is still … homicide, humiliation and violation of women, dispossession, persecution, and mass expulsion that have targeted thousands of Salvadorans due simply to their nationality, in events that have no precedents in Central America, nor in America as a whole.”</p>
<p>The football matches simply added a mobilising element that contributed to escalating an already existing conflict. The number of displaced Salvadoran peasants after the conflict reached hundreds of thousands. After the ceasefire, El Salvador had to deal with this large population of refugees. </p>
<p>The conflict also increased the Salvadoran nationalistic sentiment and the political role of the armed forces, setting the stage for the political disputes in the 1970s that would culminate in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/El-Salvador/Civil-war">Salvadoran civil war</a> in 1979.</p>
<p>Many of the Salvadoran refugees already had experience of political organisation from the land disputes in Honduras and ended up joining the <a href="https://prism.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/port/items/686599?query=el+salvador+civil+war&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Del%2Bsalvador%2Bcivil%2Bwar">Farabundo Martí Popular Forces of Liberation</a>. This was a faction of the Salvadoran Communist Party that later became a left-wing military organisation with support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.</p>
<h2>Messi will not start a war in China</h2>
<p>The idea that football started a war is misguided. The violence in those matches in 1969 would not have escalated without the broader sociopolitical context of violent dispossession. Lacking a similar context, the declarations of frustrated fans who expected to see Messi in Hong Kong will not escalate. </p>
<p>This is not to say that football lacks political relevance. The inflamed reaction by fans and Chinese authorities shows the effect that a political statement (or one perceived as such) by a celebrity can have on global politics. Messi himself recently published a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/messi-sets-record-straight-over-hong-kong-absence-2024-02-19/">statement</a> on Weibo (China’s most popular microblogging site) denying any political motivation for not playing in Hong Kong. </p>
<p>Messi has avoided getting involved with politics, especially during Argentina’s heated general election in 2023. But others have done the opposite. Perhaps former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52072592">calling</a> for a ceasefire in Ivory Coast in 2007 can serve as an inspiring example of how footballers can use their popularity to influence global politics and even stop wars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pedro Dutra Salgado does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Messi will not start a war in China, but this is not to say that football lacks political relevance.Pedro Dutra Salgado, Lecturer in International Relations, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2007762023-05-11T12:14:00Z2023-05-11T12:14:00ZImmigration policies don’t deter migrants from coming to the US – Title 42 and the border rules replacing it only make the process longer and more difficult<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518228/original/file-20230329-14-pf7xnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C9%2C2895%2C2092&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Honduran migrants head for the United States in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/honduran-migrants-part-of-the-second-caravan-to-the-united-news-photo/1082946788?adppopup=true">Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Politicians have been saying there’s an <a href="https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/in-depth/in-depth-why-many-experts-say-our-immigration-system-is-broken-and-what-is-being-done-to-fix-it">immigration crisis</a> at the border for decades and have been trying to fix it for nearly as long. The rules have changed many times over the years – and they are about to change again as a pandemic-era set of restrictions expires May 11, 2023.</p>
<p>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration into the U.S. at the border with Mexico was governed by a group of federal immigration laws and regulations, <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title8/html/USCODE-2011-title8-chap12-subchapII-partII-sec1182.htm#:%7E:text=Any%20alien%20who%20at%20any,violation%20of%20law%20is%20inadmissible.">collectively known as Title 8</a>. These laws, among other things, set the terms for the rapid deportation of people who enter the country illegally or are not eligible for asylum.</p>
<p>In March 2020, after COVID-19 hit, President Donald Trump declared a national public health emergency. That triggered a more restrictive set of rules under a decades-old, little used set of public health regulations<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/politics/title-42-ending-whats-next-explainer-cec/index.html"> known as Title 42</a>. These regulations empowered Customs and Border Protection agents to both quickly expel migrants who entered the U.S. illegally and deny asylum seekers the right to enter the country as a way to stop the spread of a COVID 19.</p>
<p>As the public health emergency expires on May 11, the rules for prospective immigrants are changing again. The Title 8 rules are coming back into effect – and new measures from the Biden administration also will be in place. The administration’s goal is to stem the flow of an expected <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/us/title-42-border-migrants.html?searchResultPosition=2">13,000 migrants daily</a>. But these new measures may exclude refugees facing real danger.</p>
<p>One new measure, for example, <a href="https://abc7.com/biden-administration-mexico-border-title-42/13230234/">will deny asylum</a> to people who arrive at the U.S. southern border without first applying for asylum online or in the country they passed through. And <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-government-announces-sweeping-new-actions-to-manage-regional-migration/">under Title 8</a>, people who enter the country illegally could face <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-title-42-policy-immigration-what-happens-ending-expiration/">a five-year ban</a> from the U.S.</p>
<p>From my work as a <a href="https://globalmigration.ucdavis.edu/people/robert-irwin">scholar of migration studies</a>, I believe the new set of rules may make some of the most vulnerable migrants even more vulnerable to economic and political exploitation and violence by delaying or denying them the protection of the U.S. under federal laws and international rules about asylum.</p>
<h2>Delaying immigration and asylum</h2>
<p>Research shows that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22451177/biden-border-immigration-enforcement-detention-deportation">United States’ immigration policies have never deterred migrants</a> from <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/01/13/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s-mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs/">coming to the country</a>; they have only made the immigration process longer and more difficult.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Adults, some of them wearing face masks, and children stand outdoors waiting for U.S. Border Patrol officers to pick them up." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518242/original/file-20230329-22-219670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Honduran immigrants wait for the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Mission, Texas, on March 24, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/immigrants-from-honduras-stand-and-wait-for-the-border-news-photo/1231998345?adppopup=true">Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/reports/705/">asylum court backlogs</a> have increased more than sevenfold over the past 10 years. There are more than 750,000 cases pending, with average wait times for a court date currently running over four years.</p>
<p>These figures do not account for the time it may take for migrants to get from their home countries to the Mexico-U.S. border, where they may also have to wait months or years to be allowed to cross. Parallel to immigration court backlogs are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/mexico-border-migrants-shelters.html">backlogs at the border</a>, where the slow trickle of admissions to the U.S. of new asylum seekers, permitted now only via a glitchy smartphone app, have failed for years to keep up with new arrivals, seriously challenging Mexico’s capacity for housing them.</p>
<h2>Humanizing deportation</h2>
<p>Since 2016, I have coordinated a digital storytelling project called “<a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/">Humanizing Deportation</a>,” which has published personal narratives in audiovisual form from over 350 migrants. It is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.855">the world’s largest qualitative database</a> on the human consequences of contemporary U.S. border and migration control policies.</p>
<p>Our research shows that as migration deterrence policies have multiplied and intensified over these past two presidential administrations, migration stories have become more complex and migrant journeys more arduous. One story from our archive shows how several of these policies have played out for a migrant family. </p>
<p>Our project is unable to verify all details of migrants’ stories, and what you read here is based on one family’s recollection of events.</p>
<p>A migrant from Honduras discusses the hardships, including deportation and kidnapping, he and his family faced as they traveled to the U.S. seeking asylum.</p>
<h2>Deportations, childbirth and a kidnapping</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/2018/11/21/124-from-inside-the-caravan/">Honduran migrant who wishes to remain anonymous</a> left his homeland initially in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/world/americas/trump-migrant-caravan.html">migrant caravan</a> in 2018. After crossing into the U.S., the migrant says that despite his insistence that he was fearful of being sent back and his refusal to sign a voluntary removal form, Border Patrol officers shouted obscenities at him and physically <a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/2019/05/28/166-after-the-caravan/">forced him to place a thumb print on the document</a>, then deported him to Honduras.</p>
<p>The migrant set out again soon after that, this time with his pregnant wife and young son. Before getting far, they were detained by Mexican immigration authorities and later deported. But they left again, getting as far as Huixtla, Chiapas, in Mexico, where they had to stop so that <a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/2019/07/05/124c-migrating-while-pregnant/">his wife could give birth</a>.</p>
<p>The family settled for a time in Monterrey, Nuevo León, but struggled to make a living there. They decided to pay a smuggler to accompany the wife and son to the Mexico-U.S. border, where in the summer of 2019 they crossed and were picked up by Border Patrol. Officers allowed the two to initiate their asylum process through the <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/archive/migrant-protection-protocols">Migrant Protection Protocols program</a>, a U.S. government program that returns migrants who arrived in the United States from Mexico by land back to Mexico while U.S. immigration proceedings are underway. Under its guidelines, they were sent back to Mexico to await a court date.</p>
<p>Human rights <a href="https://www.hrw.org/tag/remain-mexico#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CRemain%20in%20Mexico%E2%80%9D%20sends%20asylum,asylum%20in%20the%20United%20States.">advocates criticized Migrant Protection Protocols because of dangers</a>, such as extortion, kidnapping and rape that migrants face in Mexico. In this case, immediately after mother and son returned, <a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/2022/02/23/124e-now-on-the-other-side/">they were kidnapped</a>. Without the money to pay the ransom, they had to turn to friends and family, including the woman’s mother, who sold her house in Honduras to get them released.</p>
<p>Back in Monterrey, the husband, afraid to try applying for asylum after being deported but determined to reach the U.S., paid a smuggler to get him to Tennessee.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, his wife didn’t wish to stay in Monterrey. “I was really afraid – I didn’t go out because I felt they might kidnap me again,” she told us. So she retreated to southern Mexico with her son and baby daughter.</p>
<p>Working as an auto mechanic, the husband was able to earn enough money in Tennessee to pay most of what they owed the smugglers and their family.</p>
<p>Then, in 2021, when the Biden administration allowed migrants who had abandoned their Migrant Protection Protocols asylum applications to resume the process – but in the U.S. – the mother and children joined the husband in Tennessee. The following year, <a href="http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/2022/02/23/124d-now-on-the-other-side/">they moved to California</a>, where as an immigrant family they feel more welcome than in Tennessee. Although the wife is still waiting for a court date, the family is hopeful that she and the children will be granted asylum. But she was thrilled to give birth recently to a baby boy in California.</p>
<p>“Because it’s more peaceful,” says the father, who is afraid to join his wife’s asylum claim because of his previous deportation. “We’ve heard that it’s where the immigrant community is most protected.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-03-02/biden-asylum-proposal-trump">Numerous policies over the past seven years</a> have been enacted to deter migration, but many people have migrated anyway. They have been forced to navigate long, difficult, dangerous journeys and often traumatic migration processes that have endangered and complicated their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert McKee Irwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>US immigration policies have not deterred migration, but they have made the process longer and more difficult for migrants.Robert McKee Irwin, Deputy Director, Global Migration Center, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898582022-10-27T19:42:12Z2022-10-27T19:42:12ZCanadian mining project in Guatemala opposed in local vote over environmental concerns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491600/original/file-20221025-18-ne5qnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C476%2C1751%2C850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Cerro Blanco mining site is located in Guatemala's department of Jutiapa, which borders El Salvador and the Pacific ocean.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bluestoneresources.ca/cerro-blanco-project/photo-gallery/#&gid=1&pid=2">(Bluestone Resources)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent historic move, locals from Asunción Mita, Guatemala, voiced their opposition in a referendum on the mining projects that have affected their community for decades. <a href="https://www.prensacomunitaria.org/2022/09/acciones-de-bluestone-resources-se-derrumban-tras-rechazo-a-mineria-en-asuncion-mita/?fbclid=IwAR0lRfugLkmyLnA6ZbGiTyLNWMOsM6rd22TLakin8vjvGVXDk93IfbQYm7s">Eighty nine per cent</a> of them voted “no” to the development of mining activities, like the Cerro Blanco gold and silver open-pit mine owned by Bluestone Resources — a Canadian mining company — in a municipal consultation held last month.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1577746948660117507">arsenic liberated in the proposed open-pit mine’s gold extraction process</a> can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-21729-0_3">toxic leaching</a>
and long-lasting contamination that affects the supply of water for drinking, agriculture and cattle rearing by local communities.</p>
<p>Despite the resistance, Bluestone Resources, <a href="https://mem.gob.gt/blog/el-ministerio-de-energia-y-minas-mem/">Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines</a> and a local pro-mining group tried to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/guatemalans-strongly-reject-mining-project-in-local-referendum/">contest the legality of the voting process in an attempt to illegitimize it</a>. </p>
<p>While this consultation is binding for the municipal council and the mayor — <a href="http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/40VtLRev597-Aldana-Abate.pdf">responsible for issuing local mining permits</a> — the Guatemalan Constitutional Court <a href="https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/guatemala-court-nullifies-mining-referendum">nullified the consultation results</a> after an injunction filed by a Bluestone Resources subsidiary, Elevar Resources. </p>
<p>The community, along with social and environmental organizations in the neighbouring countries of El Salvador and Honduras, plan to take the <a href="https://twitter.com/malayerbacom/status/1581382359785406464?s=20&t=q6YHMX3lYg6fShhy6iXPJQ&fbclid=IwAR00QgLdJ1UmMmFDFqu7Z17yQIDZQiQsbWVoX8H9vzC7NR9ilmYRE_i1dPw">consultation case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights</a>. Local consultations like these remain the most effective instrument for communities to express their consent, and they need to be supported.</p>
<h2>From tunnel to open-pit mining</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://ilas.sas.ac.uk/research-projects/legal-cultures-subsoil/2019-meeting-congress-question-government-officials-cerro">denying Goldcorp, the former owner of Cerro Blanco,</a> a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2011.00529.x">licence to conduct large-scale mining projects</a> due to scarce and inconsistent information on environmental impacts, Guatemala’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources granted the mining company a 25-year licence in 2007.</p>
<p>The ministry <a href="https://acafremin.org/es/noticias-regionales/el-salvador/487-rios-majestuosos-con-arsenico-y-sin-oro">approved an Environmental Impact Assesment</a> that overlooked the concerns, such as the pollution of the Lempa river, presented by the Guatemalan MadreSelva environmental collective and locals from Asunción Mita. Goldcorp was, however, unable to extract minerals from these tunnel mines due to heat and other issues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Miners enter a mining site" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483401/original/file-20220908-13-snqyrv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miners enter the Cerro Blanco site. According to the 2021 environmental impact assessment, the tunnel mining process will shift to an open-pit one.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(ACAFREMIN)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bluestone Resources took over the mine from Goldcorp in 2017. In November 2021, the company submitted a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2022-01-12/bluestone-reviews-progress-at-cerro-blanco-during-2021-and-submits-permit-amendment">permit amendment application</a> — spanning more than 3,000 pages — that spoke of an open pit rather than a tunnel-mining extraction process.</p>
<p>While the tunnel mine would extract thermal water, flowing at a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282862065_Mita_a_Newly_Discovered_Geothermal_System_in_Guatemala">temperature of 80 C to 120 C </a> with a high content of arsenic and heavy metals, the recently approved open pit mining uses a dry stack tailings storage technique. The silty, sandy material left over after metal extraction, called <a href="https://www.tailings.info/disposal/drystack.htm">filter tailings</a>, are compacted in a mound and stored at the base of a dam in upstream construction methods.</p>
<p>When waterlogged, the tailings can liquefy and reduce the friction that binds an earthen dam together, risking <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/world/americas/brazil-dam-collapse.html">disastrous collapses</a>. <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/catastrophic-failures-raise-alarm-about-dams-containing-muddy-mine-wastes">That’s why this method</a> has been banned in Chile and Brazil in South America. </p>
<h2>Strategic support in the consultation process</h2>
<p>Historically, <a href="https://earthworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NDG_DirtyMetalsReport_HR.pdf">communities closest to mining projects suffer</a> severe consequences. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.prensalibre.com/economia/proyecto-minero-cerro-blanco-la-polemica-en-jutiapa-por-una-consulta-municipal-sobre-una-mina-canadiense/">Julio González</a>, from the MadreSelva environmental collective, says Bluestone Resources has publicly stated there’s local support for the project, blaming any opposition on external sources. But local organizations <a href="https://acafremin.org/es/blog/893-poblacion-organizada-de-asuncion-mita-exige-consulta-ciudadana-para-determinar-futuro-de-mina-cerro-blanco">collected more than 4,000 signatures from registered voters</a> to request the municipal authorities of Asunción Mita to carry out a consultation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A community meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483397/original/file-20220908-9316-trpuk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Communities organized a municipal consultation on Sept. 18, 2022 as per the municipal code.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(ACAFREMIN)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These groups have been receiving the support, advice and inspiration from the <a href="https://acafremin.org/es/prensa/comunicados/880-la-mineria-a-cielo-abierto-del-proyecto-cerro-blanco-amenaza-el-agua-de-las-y-los-salvadorenos">Central American Alliance Against Mining</a>, <a href="https://www.caritas.sv/nuestro-trabajo/noticias/380-iglesia-catolica-se-une-en-defensa-del-agua-y-la-vida">Salvadoran and Guatemalan Catholic Church representatives</a> and Pope Francis’s letter, <a href="https://www.environmentandsociety.org/mml/encyclical-letter-laudato-si-holy-father-francis-care-our-common-home"><em>Laudato Si</em></a>. </p>
<p>Preparing a plan for any major extractive project requires consulting <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/sites/amnesty/files/mining-in-guatemala-rights-at-risk-eng.pdf">affected Indigenous groups in the area</a>. The lack of consultation in the mining industry, as in Asunción Mita, has added to socio-environmental conflicts in Guatemala. </p>
<h2>Lack of consultation</h2>
<p>Until now, the Guatemalan government has never conducted a consultation before awarding an extraction license. </p>
<p>But it started suspending the licences of mines that failed to secure community support through consultation following the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_008061/lang--en/index.htm#:%7E:text=169%2C%201989">International Labour Organization Convention 169</a> that requires “governments to respect the traditional values of tribal and Indigenous peoples and to consult with them on decisions affecting their economic or social development.” Guatemala ratified it in 1996.</p>
<p>This was evident when the Guatemalan constitutional court <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemalan-president-suspends-civil-rights-facilitate-nickel-mine-demand-battery-minerals">suspended the mining license for Fénix nickel mine in 2019</a> and ordered a consultation. </p>
<p>The Ministry of Energy and Mines plans to begin consultations on previously licensed projects such as <a href="https://www.bnamericas.com/en/features/will-fenix-consultation-spur-mining-restart-in-guatemala">Kappes, Cassiday & Associates’ Tambor gold asset and 24 other non-metallic mining projects</a>.</p>
<h2>Transboundary necessities</h2>
<p>Cross-border issues, like shared watersheds and climate change, have started <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X21000249">new and crucial discussions on the sovereignty and safety of natural resources</a>. The Cerro Blanco mining activity in Guatemala poses a great threat to El Salvador and Honduras as well because they rely on the <a href="https://www.alharaca.sv/actualidad/proyecto-minero-cerro-blanco-amenaza-a-la-cuenca-del-lempa/?fbclid=IwAR2uRcIgJiDWQqBx8x-B4gdxlcWxC5jmh7Dbseu9KRZgY9Jqb-cek4sYmFI">Lempa river</a> to meet the water requirements of their 3.8 million residents.</p>
<p>Bluestone Resources said an <a href="https://bluestoneresources.ca/news/index.php?content_id=192">independent international consulting firm collected data from locals</a> and found “a positive attitude toward the project.” The company obtained the support of some locals by <a href="https://bluestoneresources.ca/_resources/presentations/Sustainable-Development2020.pdf">investing in infrastructure, education and promises of employment</a>, <a href="https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/environment/it-pains-me-to-tell-you-that-the-image-of-canada-is-severely-damaged/">creating divisions</a> within the community as those who oppose the mine are stigmatized and further marginalized.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A narrow river with green shrubbery on both sides and mountains in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483650/original/file-20220909-24-tavou1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The arsenic liberated from the ore while extracting gold in the Cerro Blanco mining project could result in toxic leaching and long-lasting contamination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(ACAFREMIN)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Establishing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/10/el-salvador-mining-ban-water-security?_ga=2.8874677.1024722598.1642887606-1086285700.1642887606">regional agreement</a> about the Cerro Blanco mine’s impact on the Ostua basin, Lake Guija and the Lempa river, in the <a href="https://www.trinacionalriolempa.org/mtfrl/archivos/documentos/Trifinio-Mayors%20statement-06-JUN-2022.pdf">Trifinio-Fraternidad Transboundary Biosphere</a>, is crucial. </p>
<p>Local citizens need to be able to exercise their constitutional right to participate in the consultation process for projects in their neighbourhoods that affect their environment, health and well-being. They need to be able to convey the voice of their community across borders.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://justice-project.org/the-canada-brand-violence-and-canadian-mining-companies-in-latin-america/">tendency to under-report social conflict in Latin America to foreign investors</a>, including those of Canadian mining companies, needs to change. </p>
<p>Canadian shareholders and concerned citizens should be aware of the impact and inadequacy of their mining companies in meeting international standards. And all of this starts with community consultation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giada Ferrucci consults to the Central Alliance on Mining (ACAFREMIN).</span></em></p>Locals from Asunción Mita, Guatemala recently voted against the development of mining activities in their municipality, in a referendum contested by a Canadian mining company that owns a gold mine.Giada Ferrucci, PhD Candidate, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753972022-02-15T13:44:40Z2022-02-15T13:44:40ZFerns: the houseplants that reveal how tropical rainforests are responding to climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446510/original/file-20220215-27-1cc6gvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1279&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/green-fern-flora-plants-botany-4183977/">Pasja1000/Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ferns are at their most diverse and abundant in the world’s tropical rainforests. This warm and humid ecosystem is heaven for these plants, which unfurl their feather-like leaves in the damp and shaded understory. So how did they ever come to colonise British living rooms?</p>
<p>If you have a potted fern at home, your choice of household companion may have something to do with the Victorians. Pteridomania (<em>pterido</em> comes from <em>pteris</em>, <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pterido-#:%7E:text=What%20does%20pterido%2D%20mean%3F,like%20feathers%2C%20after%20all.">the Greek word</a> for fern) seized Britain in the 19th century, as people competed to cultivate ferns at home and in specialised greenhouses. </p>
<p>Only 70 species of fern can be found in the UK wild, but you can buy over 500 species as house or garden plants today. That’s if you fancy the challenge of growing these fussy flora at home, of course. Ferns are notoriously difficult to keep alive. Too much water and the plant’s roots rot. Too little water and the plant starts sucking up air, causing a blockage which kills it. </p>
<p>Their sensitivity to temperature and rain make ferns ideal indicators for environmental conditions. For example, if your fern’s tips go brown then it probably means the air in your house is too dry. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white illustration of people in Victorian-era clothes taking cuttings of wild ferns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446511/original/file-20220215-15-1ymdcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Victorian fern craze, as reported in The Illustrated London News, July 1871.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteridomania#/media/File:Pteridomania.jpg">Helen Allingham</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This property also makes ferns very useful for scientists trying to understand how ecosystems are coping with climate change. By studying how these ancient plants have responded to environmental changes in the past, botanists hope to open a window into the future of the world’s tropical forests.</p>
<h2>Terra ferna</h2>
<p>Ferns first appeared on our planet around 350 million years ago. These plants, which lack flowers and seeds and reproduce via spores instead, helped shape the earliest forests and served as important food sources for many extinct species, including some dinosaurs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fern in a pot suspended above the floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446513/original/file-20220215-17-1hqtet5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A seemingly happy housebound fern.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pot-hanging-boston-fern-1729836934">JADEZMITH/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scientists who research fossil plants have used fern fossils to reconstruct past climates and to study the effect of natural changes in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379199000463">the Earth’s climate system</a>. Ferns are now being used to predict how modern climate change, driven by people burning fossil fuels, will affect plants and ecosystems worldwide.</p>
<p>But since ferns love to grow in warm and wet places, it’s not always easy to study them. Many tropical ferns grow along steep cliffs or up tall trees. No wonder fern species which evolved in the tropics can struggle to thrive indoors and often need extra love and attention during dry summer months. </p>
<p>Honduras, sandwiched between Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, is about half the size of the UK but is home to more than three times as many plant species, including <a href="https://www.biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/view/phytotaxa.506.1.1">more than 700 ferns</a>. The mountainous central American country has a tropical climate and vast forests and is often covered by thick clouds. </p>
<p>Growing high up on mountain ledges, some Honduran fern species are doomed by the higher temperatures and lower rainfall which climate models <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/">predict</a> for much of the world’s tropical forests. Plant species across the globe have moved up mountains by <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/41/12741">between 30 metres and 36 metres</a> in the last ten years alone to escape hotter, drier conditions.</p>
<p>When growing conditions take a turn for the worse, ferns have three options. Either disperse to somewhere cooler and wetter, stay and try to adapt to the changing conditions (possible if the environmental changes aren’t too drastic), or go extinct. For most neglected house-grown ferns, the last option is the most common.</p>
<p>And that’s the route which many ferns growing at high altitudes in tropical forests are likely to take as well. In 2018, researchers in Honduras, the UK and US set out to better understand the globally observed trends in plant distributions. Their project is part of a wider effort to write the first fern flora of Honduras. A flora is a book that describes the plant species growing in a particular area or time period. </p>
<p>What the researchers have discovered so far is worrying. When studying the tallest mountain in Honduras (which has a summit at 2,844 metres), they found that up to 32 of the 160 ferns that grow on the mountain will <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-tropical-ecology/article/nowhere-to-escape-diversity-and-community-composition-of-ferns-and-lycophytes-on-the-highest-mountain-in-honduras/8E676ED96AAA0E727D1BC92722154C18">need to shift</a> above its maximum elevation. In other words, these species will disappear, and this is expected to happen in as little as 25 years, perhaps 70 at most.</p>
<p>Wild ferns in the UK and elsewhere in Europe have already begun <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/113/3/453/2768916?login=true">shifting their distribution</a> in response to climate change, and we can anticipate more severe changes in the near future. These sensitive plants have already told us a lot about the past. Now, they provide an early warning about the future.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sven Batke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fussy about moisture and temperature, ferns are excellent indicators of environmental change.Sven Batke, Lecturer in Biology, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1737142022-01-13T19:48:52Z2022-01-13T19:48:52ZEnvironmental disasters are fuelling migration — here’s why international law must recognize climate refugees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440721/original/file-20220113-27-1jjcje5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=98%2C91%2C4604%2C3044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman wades through mud to collect items from her home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The devastation brought by hurricanes Eta and Iota in Honduras in November 2020 contributed to a sharp rise in northward migration. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When hurricanes Eta and Iota barrelled into Central America in November 2020, they flooded towns and cities, caused catastrophic losses in the agricultural sector and contributed to food insecurity. In all, <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/guatemala/central-america-hurricanes-eta-iota-6-months-operation-update-mdr43007">4.7 million Hondurans were affected</a>, and tens of thousands decided to leave, forming <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/26/the-spiralling-crisis-pushing-hondurans-to-flee-north">migrant caravans</a> in a desperate attempt to rebuild their lives in the United States. </p>
<p>Scientists ultimately linked that record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season to climate change, making it clear that climate change is already influencing migration. </p>
<p>My research studies the relationships between law, people and the environment. In refugee law, people become refugees when they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin. Persecution is currently limited to grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. That means when people move due to environmental degradation or disaster, they are not, in the legal sense of the word, “refugees.” </p>
<p>But international refugee and human rights law can no longer place the focus solely on social and political persecution. It must be overhauled to consider climate change and include “deadly environments” as a form of persecution. </p>
<p>The concept of deadly environments accounts for the social, political and ecological conditions that force someone to move. Including it in legal definitions would establish the environment as contributing to conditions of human rights deprivation and persecution.</p>
<h2>Deadly environments absent in refugee law</h2>
<p>The World Bank estimates that without radical and concerted efforts to slow climate change, <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/36248">216 million</a> people will be displaced within their own countries by 2050. With the scale of climate-induced migration, it’s <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-climate-refugees-are-coming-countries-and-international-law-arent/">inevitable</a> that millions will seek refuge across borders, even if they are <a href="https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/is-it-time-for-canada-to-open-its-doors-to-climate-migrants-4345242">invisible to refugee law</a>. </p>
<p>Migration researchers agree that it is often inaccurate to link migration choices to a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Forced-Migration-Current-Issues-and-Debates/Bloch-Dona/p/book/9781138653238">single event</a>. It has become common to examine climate change as one in a nexus of factors, including <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c2f54fe4.html">violence, conflict and disaster</a>. </p>
<p>The uncertain speed of climate disruptions complicates matters further. Their onset can be slow, like ongoing droughts that cause food insecurity, or fast, like hurricanes and floods that destroy homes and crops.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sits outside a small brick house in a chair with a toddler on her lap, while a man walks towards her carrying a bowl of corn, and another walks past her carrying tall stalks of corn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440724/original/file-20220113-13-yxaiii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Residents of a drought-affected region of China were relocated to new homes in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in October 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given this, how can we define people who have been displaced by climate? There is no internationally accepted definition of climate-impacted migrants. </p>
<p>The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers uses the term “<a href="https://carl-acaadr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CARL-Climate-Migration-Report-FINAL-AB-1.pdf">climate migrant</a>,” whereas a report by the White House uses “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Report-on-the-Impact-of-Climate-Change-on-Migration.pdf">climate change related-migration</a>” as an umbrella term. Some use the term <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638843-1">environmental migrants</a>, others use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12193">environmentally displaced peoples</a>. Like some other adamant outliers, I use the phrase <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315109619">climate refugees</a> to underscore the agency of those seeking refuge. </p>
<p>The debate over definitions misses the point. As British geographer Calum T. M. Nicholson explains, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12062">the key issue is not the cause of movement, but the rights violations suffered by migrants</a>.” </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FSheet38_FAQ_HR_CC_EN.pdf">Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights</a>, climate change impacts the human rights to life, self-determination, development, health, food, water and sanitation, adequate housing and cultural rights. One only need to think about the 400,000 livestock herders in <a href="https://www.internal-displacement.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/21_0318_Local_integration_in_Ethiopia.pdf">Southern Ethiopia</a> who were displaced by climate-related drought between 2015 and 2019. They continue to require assistance for food, water and shelter. </p>
<h2>Deadly environments and border practices</h2>
<p>Shifting the focus to deadly environments makes it clear that they are produced not only by climate change, but also by the practices upheld along borders. </p>
<p>The Transnational Institute, an international research and advocacy institute, reports that the world’s wealthiest countries <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/global-climate-wall">spend more on militarizing their borders than they do on responding to the climate crisis</a>. This often includes building walls, developing surveillance technologies and hiring armed border guards. According to the institute, rich countries are building a “global climate wall” to keep out people forced to migrate due to climate change with deadly consequences.</p>
<p>In her book <em><a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-death-of-asylum">The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago</a></em>, Alison Mountz, a geographer at Wilfrid Laurier University, describes the steady development of asylum processing in places far away from physical borders, such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/15/australia-8-years-abusive-offshore-asylum-processing">Australia’s offshore processing camps</a> in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Mountz argues that the growth of offshore detention centres contributes to the physical deaths of asylum-seekers, as well as their political deaths, as news of drowned migrants becomes mundane and normalized.</p>
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<img alt="A backlit photo of the border wall with the silhouettes of six people walking along a ridge with the river below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440725/original/file-20220113-13-1m7tl2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pair of migrant families from Brazil passes through a gap in the border wall to cross from Mexico into Yuma, Ariz., in June 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://missingmigrants.iom.int/">UN International Organization for Migration</a> (IOM) has documented the deaths of nearly 46,000 migrants en route to safety since 2014. An estimated 23,000 have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. </p>
<p>The border-crossing between the United States and Mexico is particularly deadly, with 2,980 deaths recorded since 2014. <a href="https://missingmigrants.iom.int/region/americas">According to the IOM</a>, the “main direct causes of death identified in this area are drowning … and deaths caused by harsh environmental conditions and lack of shelter, food and water.”</p>
<p>International refugee and human rights law must be urgently overhauled to recognize deadly environments as sites of persecution.</p>
<h2>Towards a new protection regime</h2>
<p>The United Nations Refugee Agency has already established links between climate change and persecution. It finds that when a state is unwilling to respond to humanitarian needs that are the result of climate change, there is a “<a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/5f75f2734.html">risk of human rights violations amounting to persecution</a>.” </p>
<p>Deadly environments, including those transformed by climate change whether suddenly or over long periods of time, need to be considered sites of persecution. Their presence should trigger state obligations to provide protection for peoples forcibly displaced by climate change. </p>
<p>Central to this effort is establishing relationships among law, humans and the environment. This is one step towards recognizing that people displaced by climate change are, in fact, refugees.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel L. Huizenga receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>International refugee law must be overhauled to consider climate change and include “deadly environments” as a form of persecution.Daniel L. Huizenga, Postdoctoral Fellow, Human Geography, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636292021-07-12T12:29:31Z2021-07-12T12:29:31ZHow Latin America’s protest superheroes fight injustice and climate change – and sometimes crime, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410644/original/file-20210709-13-1a9nnzj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C0%2C820%2C390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Argentine justice crusader who calls himself Menganno has been patrolling the streets of the city of Lanus since 2010. Netflix has now picked up his character.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS21WlJupSs">Netflix Latinoamérica (screenshot)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not all heroes wear capes. In Latin America, some real-life icons wear Mexican wrestling masks or arm themselves with shields and herbicide to lead demonstrations and strong-arm government officials into protecting the people. </p>
<p>These superheroes aren’t <a href="https://www.marvel.com/characters/iron-man-tony-stark">traumatized billionaires</a> like Ironman or <a href="https://www.dccomics.com/characters/superman">aliens with modest alter egos</a> like Superman. They are regular people from Mexico, Argentina and beyond who, with outlandish costumes – and, sometimes, social media accounts – galvanize their communities to defend themselves against everything from police brutality to corporate greed. </p>
<p>Mass demonstrations in the United States have yet to spawn this kind of real-life superhero. But as <a href="https://vt.academia.edu/VinodhVenkatesh/CurriculumVitae">my research on Latin American cultural studies and history</a> demonstrates, common citizens there regularly don outlandish outfits and adopt comic book-inspired personas to promote social change.</p>
<h2>Mexico’s Superbarrio</h2>
<p>Perhaps the best-known character of this sort is Mexico’s Superbarrio, who in the late 1980s <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/superbarrio-the-peoples-superhero/">advocated for housing reform</a> in Mexico City. The character was created by Marco Rascón, a social activist and <a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2021/02/10/marco-rascon-sera-candidato-a-la-alcaldia-cuauhtemoc-por-movimiento-ciudadano/">occasional political candidate</a>, who never actually wore the mask but who coordinated the character’s public appearances. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holding a soccer ball stands next to a man wearing a red full-face mask with a cape and an 'SB' emblem on his shirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Superbarrio, seen here in 1998, was an early real-life Mexican superhero who became popular across Latin America.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mexican-superbarrio-gomez-and-a-french-unemployed-pose-for-news-photo/1193446923">Eric Cabanis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to organizing rallies for affordable housing and tenant protection programs, <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/02/27/mexico/1519752156_150172.html">Superbarrio routinely met with politicians and housing officials</a> as an advocate for the needs of the city’s poor, many of whom were rural migrants who came to the capital during Mexico’s <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190699192.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190699192-e-32">mid-20th-century boom years</a>. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, Superbarrio supported the Zapatistas – an Indigenous protest movement based in the southern state of Chiapas – in their grassroots challenge of the Mexican government and global capitalism. </p>
<p>The costume Rascón helped design for Superbarrio combined some elements of Mexican masked wrestlers like El Santo – a justice-seeking “luchador” who became a folk hero and movie character – with others recalling El Chapulín Colorado, perhaps the Spanish-speaking world’s best-known superhero. Superbarrio combined these influences with the stylized “S” chest <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Superbarrio.jpg">emblem of Superman</a>.</p>
<p>Superbarrio inspired <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1333/The-World-of-Lucha-LibreSecrets-Revelations-and">other real-life superhero protesters in Mexico</a>, including the environmental activist Ecologista Universal and the LGBTQ rights advocate Super Gay.</p>
<h2>Newer figures join in</h2>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/113329391" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video showcases Menganno.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More citizen-superheroes have since emerged in other Latin American countries.</p>
<p>One is <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/519414187">Menganno</a>, a middle-aged Argentine crime fighter who patrols the streets of the city of Lanús on a motorbike, dressed in a full costume with mask and shield. Menganno alerts authorities and city residents whenever he comes upon petty crime, from robberies to drug deals. He also helps aid agencies in identifying people who need food or shelter. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.clarin.com/zonales/superheroe-conurbano-llega-cine-filman-pelicula-capitan-menganno-puma-goity-protagonista_0_ry0sadL3z.html">2018 Menganno movie</a> has languished in post-production due to the COVID-19 crisis, but Netflix Latin America may be picking <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS21WlJupSs">up his story</a>. </p>
<p>Like Menganno, the Honduran masked figure Súper H – born Elmer Ramos – informs his neighbors about such issues as <a href="https://www.radiohouse.hn/2016/07/11/super-h-el-superheroe-sampedrano-que-esta-cambiando-honduras/">homelessness, gang violence and corruption</a>. He has plenty of problems to identify: Súper H works in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/world/americas/honduras-murder-capital/index.html">San Pedro Sula</a> – once infamously known as the murder capital of the world. </p>
<p>Active on social media and in the streets since 2016, Super H wears a Mexican-style luchador mask and the jersey of the Honduran national soccer team. </p>
<p>Increasing pesticide use is one of his targets. Another is Honduras’ semi-authoritarian president, Juan Orlando Hernández. Several Hernández administration officials have been convicted in U.S. courts for drug trafficking; in their trials Hernández himself was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/world/americas/honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-drug-trial.html">accused of participating in those operations</a>.</p>
<h2>Chilean characters</h2>
<p>Back in South America, Chile has seen several iconic figures arise from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746">recent national protests there</a> against a <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-puts-its-constitution-on-the-ballot-after-year-of-civil-unrest-147832">public transit fare hike and a starkly unequal economy</a>.</p>
<p>Some of them are accidental heroes, like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-chile-protests-heroes/looking-for-a-hero-shirtless-chilean-protester-police-hating-dog-rise-to-fame-idUKKBN1XH2S3">Pareman</a> or “Stopman” – a protester who was captured by journalists holding a stop sign while being hosed down by the police in October 2019.</p>
<p>Other notable homegrown Chilean protest heroes include the <a href="https://www.ecuadortimes.net/the-story-of-the-ecuadorian-spiderman-that-reached-the-heart-of-the-chilean-people/">Stupid and Sensual Spiderman</a>, a street performer in a Spiderman costume who twerks in front of police while chanting protest slogans, and a climate activist dressed as <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/protestas-en-chile-la-primera-linea-heroes-o-vandalos-de-la-dura-batalla-urbana-en-chile-sebastian-pinera-noticia/">Mexico’s Chapulín Colorado</a> but armed with a gas mask and a sprayer of Round-Up herbicide.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B5LgFj0h9uH","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Chile’s modern-day protest heroes follow in the footsteps of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-chilean-dog-ended-up-as-a-face-of-the-new-york-city-subway-protests-129167">Negro Matapacos</a>, a street dog wearing a red bandanna who electrified protesters almost a decade ago. Though he died in 2017, Negro Matapacos is still depicted as a sort of super sidekick in Chilean graffiti and print.</p>
<h2>Capitán Colombia</h2>
<p>Dressed in black gym clothes, ski goggles and a gas mask, Capitán Colombia is a visible figure on the front lines of his country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-colombians-are-taking-to-the-streets-to-protest-state-violence-161963">ongoing protests</a> against political corruption, economic difficulties and <a href="https://www.axios.com/colombia-lawmakers-health-care-protesters-a7b52d3c-01ce-4ad4-85f4-49331eca1b76.html">health care privatization</a>. </p>
<p>Capitán Colombia, who carries a tri-colored shield in the colors of the Colombian flag, adorned with a drawn heart, is a comic book-like muscular superhero. His toned arms and expansive chest are an exception to generally rounded physiques of Latin America’s other real-life icons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A muscular man in a gas mask, ski goggles, and a tank top, holding a metal shield painted like the Colombian flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Capitán Colombia has a comic book hero’s physique and an activist’s social critique.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/capitncolombia?lang=en">Capitan Colombia via Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like his Latin American peers, though, Capitán Colombia has no actual superpower. Still, his participation in marches draws local and international attention to the demands of his fellow protesters. So does his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/capitancolombia.oficial/?hl=en">Instagram account</a>, which has 11,000 followers.</p>
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<h2>An all-male cast</h2>
<p>While Latin America’s mass demonstrations draw all genders – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/chile-womens-day-protest">some are women-led</a> – nearly all its citizen-superhero protesters are male. In Chile, <a href="https://elpais.com/sociedad/2020-03-07/cubrirse-el-rostro-para-ser-legion-el-icono-de-la-lucha-feminista-en-chile.html">women activists have donned creative masks and outfits</a>, sometimes going topless at protests against gender violence and police abuse. They have not, however, adopted a superhero persona.</p>
<p>The all-male street superhero cast may reflect Latin America’s broader issues with gender inequity, and it mirrors the sparsity of women superheroes in both Latin American and U.S. comic franchises. Only recently have Marvel and DC put out <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/12/13/box-office-how-hollywood-sets-female-led-superhero-movies-like-wonder-woman-supergirl-catwoman-and-elektra-up-to-fail/?sh=37ad5d617fac">female-led films</a>. </p>
<p>In Mexico – which has seen several recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexican-women-are-angry-about-rape-murder-and-government-neglect-and-they-want-the-world-to-know-122156">feminist uprisings against rape and other forms of gender violence</a> – the government recently created a coronavirus-fighting superheroine named <a href="https://coronavirus.gob.mx/susana-distancia/">Susana Distancia</a>. Perhaps officials consciously sought to add a female-identified character into the mix of national superheroes. But their choice may have to do more with the rhyme of “distancia” – distance, as in social distancing.</p>
<p>Latin America’s activist superheroes skip the big screen to fight not aliens or supervillains but real world injustices. Might gender equality be a future target?</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to correct an error, introduced during editing, about the Mexican state in which the Zapatista movement originated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vinodh Venkatesh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Latin America, common citizens have often donned outlandish outfits and comic book-inspired personas to lead demonstrations and promote social change.Vinodh Venkatesh, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583582021-05-06T14:00:53Z2021-05-06T14:00:53ZEnvironmental activists are being killed in Honduras over their opposition to mining<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398516/original/file-20210504-21-1trgysc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=150%2C120%2C6559%2C4345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists and supporters of Honduran environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres hold signs with her name and likeness during the trial against Roberto David Castillo, an alleged mastermind of her murder, outside of the Supreme Court building in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 6, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Elmer Martinez)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two men shot Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo <a href="https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/killing-defender-arnold-joaquin-morazan-erazo-who-had-been-criminalised-his-defense-river">to death</a> in his home in Tocoa, Honduras, one night in October 2020. Morazán was an environmental activist and one of 32 people criminalized by the Honduran government for defending the Guapinol River against the environmental impacts of a new iron oxide mine in the Carlos Escaleras National Park. </p>
<p>So far, at least eight people who have opposed the mine have been killed, putting its owner, Inversiones Los Pinares, at the centre of a <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/honduras-mine-conflict/">deadly environmental conflict</a> in the mineral-rich Bajo Aguán region. Local communities are concerned about the mine’s potential ecological damage. In their attempts to defend their territories, <a href="https://tierraderesistentes.com/en/">local leaders have been surveilled, threatened, injured and imprisoned</a>, and some, like Morazán, have been killed. </p>
<p>Honduras is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/06/how-honduras-became-one-of-the-most-dangerous-countries-to-defend-natural-resources">deadliest place in the world for environmental defenders</a>. Hundreds of them have been killed since 2009, including the Indigenous environmental leader Berta Càceres, who was assassinated in 2016. </p>
<p>The details are murky for some of the killings. In 2019, as a member of a <a href="https://www.acafremin.org/images/documentos/Guapinol_ESP_Baja_Res.pdf">fact-finding delegation</a>, my colleagues and I documented that national police and military forces have patrolled the territory surrounding the mining project. We have recommended a thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of the human rights abuses by military police and paramilitary forces against human rights defenders and journalists in Tocoa.</p>
<h2>The roots of conflict</h2>
<p>Communities in Tocoa have persisted in organizing against the mines since 2011, when the Carlos Escaleras was declared a national park. The next year, congress reduced the park’s no-development zone to accommodate the mine’s development, following a permit process mired by irregularities. </p>
<p>Inversiones Los Pinares is owned by Lenir Pérez, a businessman previously accused of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wikileaks-honduras-us-linked-brutal-businessman/">human rights violations</a>, and Ana Facussé, daughter of the late palm oil magnate, Miguel Facussé. Even though the mine hasn’t yet exploited the iron oxide <a href="https://www.iwmf.org/reporting/the-hidden-connection-between-a-u-s-steel-company-and-the-controversial-los-pinares-mine-in-honduras/">in the 200-hectare concession</a>, community water supplies are polluted, trees have been flattened and landslides and flooding are more frequent. </p>
<p>In 2018, Los Pinares began to build an access road to the mine. In response, community members in Tocoa, including Morazán, <a href="https://www.acafremin.org/es/blog/773-otro-defensor-ambiental-asesinado-en-la-comunidad-guapinol-en-la-region-del-bajo-aguan-honduras">established the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Public and Common Goods</a> to campaign against the dispossession of natural resources by extractive industries. They submitted five requests for public consultations and held demonstrations in front of city hall. They also erected a “Camp in Defence of Water and Life” to block access to the mine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of the Camp in Defense of Water and Life" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394559/original/file-20210412-17-1boqhq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of the Camp in Defence of Water and Life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(ACAFREMIN: Central American Alliance Against Mining)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The government response to the protesters was swift and brutal. It violently <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/hondurans-flee-climate-change-violence-and-mining-project">broke up the protest camp, militarized the entire region and arrested 32 local environmental activists</a>. </p>
<p>In 2019, 12 of the accused environmentalists appeared voluntarily before authorities to <a href="https://www.elclip.org/la-conexion-escondida-de-una-siderurgica-de-ee-uu-con-la-polemica-mina-de-los-pinares-en-honduras/?lang=en">face the charges against them</a>: usurpation, arson, robbery, unlawful detention, illicit association and aggravated robbery. Eight of them remain imprisoned, although the prosecution has not presented any solid evidence to justify such prolonged detention. </p>
<p>The state also deployed the police and the army to protect the interests of Inversiones Los Pinares, <a href="https://international-allies.net/news/128-regional-news/617-honduran-state-intensifies-persecution-against-defenders-of-the-guapinol-river">eschewing the internationally recognized rights</a> of the communities to organize, defend the environment and protest peacefully against the mine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A poster of the members of the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa imprisoned for their participation in a peaceful protest against Los Pinares" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394550/original/file-20210412-21-83e1p2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa imprisoned for their participation in a peaceful protest against Inversiones Los Pinares.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(GuapinolResiste)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The international community</h2>
<p>International organizations have acknowledged the important democratic roles of the environmental defenders in Tocoa. </p>
<p>The Institute for Policy Studies, Washington’s first progressive multi-issue think tank, awarded the community committee with the international <a href="https://ips-dc.org/celebrating-environmental-defenders-at-the-letelier-moffitt-human-rights-awards/">Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights award</a>. In 2020, the committee members were nominated for the <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20200917STO87301/sakharov-prize-2020-the-nominees">Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought</a> awarded annually by the European Union. </p>
<p>Yet, in Honduras, these same activists are victims of defamation campaigns, criminalization, social media attacks and constant threats. Several residents have been forced to flee Honduras to escape criminal persecution. Meanwhile, the state uses corruption and police repression to guarantee impunity for those persecuting defenders. </p>
<p>The United States and Canada play a key role in the current crisis. They have <a href="https://www.acafremin.org/images/documentos/Guapinol_ESP_Baja_Res.pdf">geostrategic and economic interests</a> in Honduras, through trade agreements and <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Views/2009/07/09/ShameOnCanada/">aid programs implemented after a 2009 coup</a>. Afterwards, President Juan Orlando Hernandez declared Honduras “open for business.”</p>
<p>The country sold its natural resources, fuelling the expansion of extractive industries and causing conflicts with communities. The corporate-friendly General Mining Law lifted a seven-year moratorium on new mining projects — it was developed with technical assistance and <a href="https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2015/2/26/honduran-organizations-fight-have-canadian-backed-mining-law-declared">funding from the Canadian government</a>.</p>
<h2>A call for justice</h2>
<p>The conflict in Tocoa has increasingly gained the attention and support of the United Nations, particularly the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LAC/HRDAmericas/GHRC-USA.pdf">Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://honduras.oxfam.org/latest/press-release/alerta-asesinatos-defensores-de-derechos-humanos-en-honduras">Oxfam</a> and the <a href="https://pbiusa.org/content/guapinol-river-defenders-honduras-express-their-solidarity-haudenosaunee-land-defenders">Canadian Peace Brigades</a>. </p>
<p>Under the Geneva Convention rules, the international community should condemn the state’s violence against environmental defenders and accept asylum applications. </p>
<p>It should pressure the Honduran government to enable free, prior and informed consent, and call for free and fair elections. Until then, the international community should suspend non-humanitarian economic aid to Honduras. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="'Let's safeguard the forests' painted on a rock along the Guapinol River" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394557/original/file-20210412-19-1wn2lqx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Let’s safeguard the forests’ is painted on a rock along the Guapinol River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(ACAFREMIN)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A UN working group recently ruled that the <a href="https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/un-immediately-release-guapinol-defenders-investigate-those-responsible-for-illegal-detention">the detention of the eight defenders is arbitrary</a>. The defenders have since launched legal action, and Blanca Izaguirre, the country’s human rights ombudsperson commissioner, has urged the state of Honduras to release them immediately. </p>
<p>Since it launched its project in Tocoa, Inversiones Los Pinares has reinforced <a href="https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/filing-of-constitutional-appeal-freedom-for-guapinol-now">patterns of violence, stigmatization, defamation and criminalization</a> of environmental defenders. At the same time, state authorities have failed to meet human rights obligations. </p>
<p>“We feel vulnerable. While we were always protesting pacifically, here in Honduras you are criminalized for defending nature. But we do believe that water cannot be negotiated, because water is life,” Reynaldo Dominguez, one of the Guapinol defenders, told me in a recent interview.</p>
<p>The persistent corruption, structural violence and impunity suggest that Morazán will not be the last victim assassinated for defending nature for the livelihood of the community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giada Ferrucci consults to the Central American Alliance against Mining (ACAFREMIN)</span></em></p>Honduras is the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists. Those who have opposed mining, hydroelectric, logging and tourism have faced violence and death.Giada Ferrucci, PhD Student, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579532021-04-22T12:26:09Z2021-04-22T12:26:09ZMoney alone can’t fix Central America – or stop migration to US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396089/original/file-20210420-21-nrprby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C17%2C2982%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children play in Las Flores village, Comitancillo, Guatemala, home of a 22-year-old migrant murdered in January 2021 on his journey through Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/children-play-during-the-wake-of-marvin-tomas-a-guatemalan-news-photo/1231727366?adppopup=true">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To stem migration from Central America, the Biden administration has a US$4 billion plan to “<a href="https://joebiden.com/centralamerica/">build security and prosperity</a>” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – home to more than <a href="https://migrationpolicy.org/article/centralamerican-migrants-unitedstates-2017">85% of all Central American migrants</a> who arrived in the U.S. over the last three years.</p>
<p>The U.S. seeks to address the “<a href="https://joebiden.com/centralamerica/">factors pushing people to leave their countries</a>” – namely, violence, crime, chronic unemployment and lack of basic services – in a region of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">gross public corruption</a>.</p>
<p>The Biden plan, which will be partially funded with money diverted from immigration detention and the border wall, is based on a sound analysis of Central America’s dismal socioeconomic conditions. As a <a href="https://lacc.fiu.edu/news-1/2018/the-future-of-the-americas-by-president-luis-guillermo-sols/">former president of Costa Rica</a>, I can attest to the dire situation facing people in neighboring nations. </p>
<p>As a historian of Central America, I also know money alone cannot build a viable democracy. </p>
<h2>Failed efforts</h2>
<p>Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador comprise Central America’s “Northern Triangle” – a poor region with <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/2020-homicide-round-up/">among the world’s highest murder rates</a>. </p>
<p>These countries need education, housing and health systems that work. They need reliable economic structures that can attract foreign investment. And they need inclusive social systems and other crime-prevention strategies that <a href="https://theconversation.com/forced-migration-from-central-america-5-essential-reads-98600">allow people to live without fear</a>. </p>
<p>No such transformation can happen without strong public institutions and <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">politicians committed to the rule of law</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters hold Guatemalan flags and posters alleging corruption fo the president" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guatemalans call for the resignation of President Alejandro Giammatei, whom they call corrupt, Nov. 21, 2020, Guatemala City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-gather-to-stage-a-protest-against-the-president-news-photo/1229722669?adppopup=true">Fabricio Alonzo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Biden’s aid to Central America comes with strict conditions, requiring the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to “undertake significant, concrete and verifiable reforms,” including with their own money. </p>
<p>But the U.S. has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25661224?seq=1">unsuccessfully tried to make change in Central America for decades</a>. Every American president <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/alliance-for-progress">since the 1960s</a> has launched initiatives there. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, the U.S. aimed to counter the spread of communism in the region, sometimes militarily. More recently U.S. aid has focused principally on strengthening democracy, by investing in everything from the judiciary reform and women’s education to agriculture and small businesses.</p>
<p>The Obama administration also <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IN10237.pdf">spent millions on initiatives</a> to fight illegal drugs and weaken the street gangs, called “maras,” whose brutal control over urban neighborhoods is one reason migrants say they flee. </p>
<p>Such <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-cutting-central-american-aid-going-to-help-stop-the-flow-of-migrants-118806">multibillion-dollar efforts</a> have done little to improve the region’s dysfunctions.</p>
<p>If anything, Central America’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=theconversation.com+central+america+climate+change&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">problems have gotten worse</a>. COVID-19 is <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/12/15/na121720when-it-rains-it-pours-pandemic-and-natural-disasters-challenge-central-americas-economies">raging across the region</a>. Two Category 5 hurricanes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/world/americas/migration-honduras-central-america.html">hit Honduras</a> within two weeks in late 2020, leaving more than 250,000 homeless. </p>
<p>Some experts have been calling for a “<a href="https://fpif.org/central-america-needs-a-marshall-plan/">mini-Marshall Plan</a>” to stabilize Central America, like the U.S. program that rebuilt Europe after World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl sits in a muddy, destroyed school chair on muddy, messy ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5236%2C3292&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hurricanes Eta and Iota flooded Honduras in late 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-sits-on-a-school-chair-destroyed-during-hurricanes-eta-news-photo/1230539934?adppopup=true">Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Costa Rica counterpoint</h2>
<p>To imagine a way out of Central America’s problems, the history of Costa Rica – <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/costarica/88435.htm">a democratic and stable Central American country</a> – is illustrative. </p>
<p>Costa Rica’s <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-Central-America-Global-Forces-and-Political-Change/Booth-Wade-Walker/p/book/9780367361709">path to success</a> started soon after independence from Spain in 1821. </p>
<p>It developed a coffee economy that tied it early to the developing global capitalist economy. While other Central American countries fought prolonged civil wars, Costa Rica adopted a liberal constitution and invested in public education. </p>
<p>Costa Rican democracy <a href="https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2090&context=dlr">strengthened in the 1940s</a> with a constitutional amendment that established a minimum wage and protected women and children from labor abuses. It also established a national social security system, which today provides health care and pensions to all Costa Ricans.</p>
<p>These reforms <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/149238774.pdf">triggered civil war</a>. But the war’s end brought about positive transformations. In 1948, Costa Rica <a href="https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/ri/article/view/7153">abolished its military</a>. No spending in defense allows Costa Rica to invest in human development.</p>
<p><iframe id="SfjaE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SfjaE/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The country also created a credible electoral system to ensure the legitimacy of elected governments. </p>
<p>Over the next seven decades, consecutive Costa Rican governments <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2513832?seq=1">expanded this welfare state</a>, developing a large urban and rural middle class. Already a trusted U.S. ally when the Cold War began, Costa Rica was able to maintain progressive policies of the sort that, in other countries, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/washington-has-meddled-in-elections-before-92167">American government</a> viewed as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-socialism-became-un-american-through-the-ad-councils-propaganda-campaigns-132335">suspiciously “socialist.”</a> </p>
<p>Today, Costa Rica invests nearly 30% of its annual budget in public education, from kindergarten to college. Health care represents around 14.8% of the budget. </p>
<p>The U.S. is not a draw for Costa Ricans. Instead, my country has itself received <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-anti-immigrant-attitudes-violence-and-nationalism-in-costa-rica-73899">hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants</a>.</p>
<h2>Predatory elites and authoritarian politics</h2>
<p>The migrants are fleeing political systems that are broadly repressive and prone to militarism, autocracy and corruption. In large part, that’s because many Central American countries are dominated by small yet powerful economic and political <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/04/03/the-influence-of-central-american-dynasties-is-ebbing">elites, many dating back generations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A police officer in full SWAT gear with a machine guns stands outside a small store on a city street as people walk by" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A decade of militarized policing in El Salvador has not meaningfully improved safety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-tactical-squad-of-the-national-police-stands-news-photo/1204305708?adppopup=true">Aphotografia/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These elites benefit from the status quo. In the Northern Triangle, they have <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/26/biden-rethinks-central-america-strategy/">repeatedly proven unwilling</a> to promote the structural transformations – from more equitable taxation and educational investment to agrarian reforms – that could end centuries of oppression and deprivation. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, they quashed popular revolutions pursuing such changes, often <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/trump-and-el-salvador/550955/">with U.S. support</a>.</p>
<p>Biden’s Central America plan requires the active participation of this “predatory elite,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981284187/predatory-elite-also-bear-the-blame-for-migrant-crisis-juan-gonzalez-says">in the words of Biden adviser Juan Gonzalez</a>.</p>
<p>Gonzales told NPR in March that the administration would take a “partnership-based approach” in Central America, using both “carrots and sticks” to push powerful people who may not share the U.S.’s goals to help their own people. The U.S. will also enlist local human rights organizations and pro-democracy groups to aid their cause.</p>
<p>Its too early to know if the expected partnerships with Central American leaders will materialize. </p>
<p>The Salvadoran president recently <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/547176-el-salvador-president-refuses-to-meet-senior-us-diplomat-report">refused to meet</a> with Biden’s special envoy to the Northern Triangle. Honduras’ president <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/honduras-president-drug-conspiracy/">is named in a U.S. criminal investigation</a> into his brother’s alleged drug-smuggling ring.</p>
<p>Still, without the U.S. resources being offered, Central America’s troubles will persist. Money alone won’t solve them – but it is a necessary piece of an enormously complicated puzzle.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Guillermo Solis was the president of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018.</span></em></p>Biden’s $4 billion plan to fight crime, corruption and poverty in Central America is massive. But aid can’t build viable democracies if ‘predatory elites’ won’t help their own people.Luis Guillermo Solis, Distinguished Professor, Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1581062021-04-02T12:17:47Z2021-04-02T12:17:47ZThe situation at the US-Mexico border is a crisis – but is it new?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392952/original/file-20210331-21-gqa87d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1010%2C672&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Border Patrol detains tens of thousands of the families and children who try to cross U.S. borders every year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Julio Cortez</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/texas-border-facility-migrants.html">The media</a> create the impression that there is an unprecedented crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, with droves of children arriving alone, as well as families flooding to the border.</p>
<p>There is a crisis. </p>
<p>But as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C22&q=Randi+Mandelbaum&btnG=">a law professor who studies child migration</a>, I can tell you that it’s nothing new.</p>
<p>Children and families have been fleeing to the U.S. for years, particularly from Mexico and the so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. </p>
<p>Yet aspects of the current situation are different from the past. And whether more individuals are attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border “than have been in the last 20 years,” as <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/03/16/statement-homeland-security-secretary-alejandro-n-mayorkas-regarding-situation">Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas</a> predicted, remains to be seen. </p>
<p>The situation is best explained by looking at the number of migrants who have arrived at the border, <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions">as reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection</a>, a law enforcement agency that is part of the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>Customs and Border Protection puts arriving noncitizens in three categories: unaccompanied children, families and single adults. Children are designated as unaccompanied if they are under the age of 18 and arrive at a U.S. border without lawful status and without a parent or legal guardian. </p>
<p>The numbers of children like these and families have been steadily increasing in recent years. Examining those numbers puts the current circumstances at the U.S.-Mexico border into context.</p>
<h2>A steady stream</h2>
<p>Except for fiscal year 2020, which started on Oct. 1, 2019, the number of children and families migrating to the U.S. has been escalating since 2013, with highs in 2014 and 2019, and a slight dip in 2015. Overall, the number of arriving unaccompanied children has been above 40,000 every year since 2014. In most yearsit was above 50,000. For arriving families, the numbers have hovered around 70,000 each year, with surges in 2018 and especially 2019. </p>
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<p>Scholars of migration look to many “<a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/UnaccompaniedMinors-Factsheet-FINAL.pdf">push and pull factors</a>” that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/233150241700500402">draw migrant children to the U.S. border</a>. These include family and community violence, sexual assault, government corruption, agricultural disease, drought, discrimination against indigenous populations and extreme poverty.</p>
<p>The vast majority of the migrating families, and almost all (95%) of the unaccompanied children, are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. </p>
<p>So is anything different about what is taking place now? Why are <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/03/16/statement-homeland-security-secretary-alejandro-n-mayorkas-regarding-situation">government officials like Mayorkas</a> calling the situation “difficult” and “complicated?” </p>
<p>There are three interrelated issues to watch.</p>
<h2>1. Rapid increase</h2>
<p>From January to February 2021, there was a 61% uptick in the number of arriving unaccompanied children, and a 163% increase in arriving families. The numbers for March 2021 have not yet been formally reported, but they are expected to be high. </p>
<p>If this trend continues, fiscal year 2021 has the potential to surpass the high numbers that were seen in fiscal years 2014 and 2019. However, this is not yet clear, as migration flows tend to increase in the spring months and reduce a bit in the hotter, late summer months. </p>
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<h2>2. Push and pull factors</h2>
<p>There are additional push and pull factors that could give rise to increased migration. </p>
<p><a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/el-salvador/policy-brief-addressing-covid-19-fragile-cities-northern-triangle-central-america">Relief agencies</a> <a href="http://southernvoice.org/covid-19-has-exacerbated-poverty-and-inequality-in-northern-triangle-countries/">report</a> the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened economic conditions in the Northern Triangle countries and Mexico – which have always been dire.</p>
<p>Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua suffered through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/nov/13/overwhelming-central-america-braces-for-new-storms-in-wake-of-hurricane-eta">two Category 4 hurricanes within a two-week span in November 2020</a> that killed hundreds of people and left millions in need. </p>
<p>Also, asylum-seeking children and families <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/immigration/biden-immigration-changes-raise-hopes-concerns-us-mexico-border">may have some sense</a> that the current U.S. administration will be more welcoming than the prior one. This might motivate more migrants to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. in search of safety and protection.</p>
<h2>3. The U.S. government was not prepared</h2>
<p>Advocates celebrated when the Biden administration exempted unaccompanied minors from the current <a href="https://covidseries.law.harvard.edu/unprecedented-expulsion-of-immigrants-at-the-southern-border-the-title-42-process/">Title 42 expulsion policy</a> that expels migrants based upon a public health law. But government officials were ill-prepared for the surge of arriving children that followed. </p>
<p>By law, Border Patrol agents have 72 hours to turn children over to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Yet the Office of Refugee Resettlement currently lacks capacity to house all the children in need of shelter, <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/unaccompanied-child-arrivals-earlier-preparedness-shortfalls">in part because many of their facilities were dismantled under the Trump administration</a>. </p>
<p>The Office of Refugee Resettlement is rallying to construct more shelters and to release children as quickly as possible to relatives, but the backlog is huge, and many children have had to remain in Border Patrol custody for far longer than 72 hours. Whether and when the Office of Refugee Resettlement will be able to get the situation under control remains unclear.</p>
<p>So, is there anything different about what is taking place now? </p>
<p>So far, not really, although there are serious concerns about the conditions for the recently arriving children, and many hope that the expulsion policy will soon be lifted for all migrants. But time will tell whether this is an unprecedented year or not.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Randi Mandelbaum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children and families have been fleeing to the US in rising numbers for nearly a decade. So why is the current situation at the US-Mexico border being viewed as something new?Randi Mandelbaum, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1528502021-01-08T20:42:44Z2021-01-08T20:42:44ZBy inciting Capitol mob, Trump pushes U.S. closer to a banana republic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377793/original/file-20210108-13-1d8e53j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C404%2C6000%2C3583&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lawmakers hide in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol as Trump supporters raid the building on Jan. 6, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trump-show-grand-finale-capitol-riot/2021/01/07/c23e4934-5035-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html">On Jan. 6, millions of people around the world witnessed a modern-era insurrection as it unfolded in the United States</a>. Supporters of Donald Trump, the outgoing president, <a href="https://theconversation.com/pro-trump-rioters-storm-u-s-capitol-as-his-election-tantrum-leads-to-violence-149142">raided the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of the November 2020 presidential election results</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/01/06/biden-says-capitol-breach-is-insurrection-that-borders-on-sedition/?sh=12b1db3a5dbb">The insurrection</a> was the worst incidence of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/02/ocoee-florida-election-day-massacre/">election-related violence in the U.S. since 1920</a>, and the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/August_Burning_Washington.htm">first time the Capitol has been attacked by its own citizens</a>.</p>
<p>Former president George W. Bush, the last Republican president prior to Trump, condemned the event, stating: “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/george-w-bush-capitol-breach/index.html">This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic</a>.”</p>
<p>Another Republican, Wisconsin congressman Mike Gallagher, a Trump loyalist, agreed:</p>
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<p>What exactly are banana republics? </p>
<p>They typically force changes in government via coup or assassination in order to seize power. They often have populist leaders or strongmen who take power by force or refuse to relinquish it. Banana republics are therefore politically unstable, with unreliable transfers of power and frequent assassinations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/was-it-a-coup-no-but-siege-on-us-capitol-was-the-election-violence-of-a-fragile-democracy-152803">Was it a coup? No, but siege on US Capitol was the election violence of a fragile democracy</a>
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<p>Successful coups result in a change of government, while assassinations, obviously, result in a change in leader, which may or may not be sufficient to cause the incumbent government to fail.</p>
<p>So has America become a banana republic?</p>
<h2>Term applied to Honduras</h2>
<p>The term was coined by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2777/2777-h/2777-h.htm#c8">American author O. Henry in his short story <em>The Admiral</em> to describe Honduras</a>. At the time, the Central American country had faced one coup in 1827, six years after the country’s independence from Spain. Five more ensued in subsequent years; four were successful and one failed.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A portrait of José Santos Guardiola" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377799/original/file-20210108-21-1ev3pq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A portrait of José Santos Guardiola circa mid-1850s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">U.S. Library of Congress</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Honduran President José Santos Guardiola was assassinated in 1862, the only Honduran leader to meet that fate. </p>
<p>Now let’s compare the Honduran experience to America’s often violent relationship with the office of the president. <a href="https://timelines.latimes.com/us-presidential-assassinations-and-attempts/">There have been several assassination attempts</a> against sitting U.S. presidents; four of them were successful.</p>
<p>Excluding the recent events on Capitol Hill, the state of Oklahoma has also experienced one event that could qualify as a coup when the Ku Klux Klan effectively overthrew the governor in the 1920s. But that event has largely been erased from America’s historical memory.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-forgotten-coup-in-the-american-heartland-echoes-trump-151188">A forgotten coup in the American heartland echoes Trump</a>
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<p>It could be argued the United States has just survived its first coup attempt at the federal level. As in most coups, there were fatalities — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/capitol-mob-deaths/index.html">five died, including a police officer</a>.</p>
<p>So for those keeping score in terms of whether the U.S. or Honduras is a banana republic: There have been four successful presidential assassinations in the United States compared to one in Honduras, while there have been four successful coups in Honduras, but none in the U.S. at the national level.</p>
<h2>El Salvador</h2>
<p>Another country that’s <a href="https://saiia.org.za/research/peeling-away-a-banana-republic-lessons-from-latin-america/#:%7E:text=El%20Salvador%20might%20be%20considered,region%20of%20pliable%2C%20bendable%20governments.&text=Two%20earthquakes%20in%202001%20cost,dead%20and%20cost%20%245%20billion.">considered a banana republic is El Salvador</a>, which has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19402222">faced 13 coups since its independence in 1840</a>. </p>
<p>The first military coup in El Savador happened in 1890, and while most of the coups were either led by military generals or the army, there have been notable exceptions.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAmericas/CentralElSalvador.htm">1894 coup was led by rebels</a> who overthrew one civilian president for another. <a href="https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/el-salvador-1944/">The May 1944 coup was perpetrated by civilian protesters</a> in an insurrection similar to the U.S. Capitol raid. That insurrection successfully forced President Maximiliano Hernández Martínez to resign after surviving a military coup just a month earlier.</p>
<p>Two of the 13 coups were what are known as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51458947">self-coups</a>, in which an incumbent plots against his own government to quash dissent — something that seems chillingly familiar to Trump’s conduct <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/01/06/they-will-get-primaried-trump-allies-threaten-republicans-who-wont-object-to-electoral-college/">and his threats against Republican leaders since he lost the election</a>. </p>
<p>The first Salvadoran self-coup was in 1972 by <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/molina-arturo-armando-1927">President Arturo Armando Molina</a> and the second was just last year, when <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/americas/salvador-bukele-coronavirus-intl/index.html">President Nayib Bukele used the army against his own government</a> due to a standoff with legislators over their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/c0374df359b03835ea0ce07d0a47d973">refusal to approve a $109 million loan from the United States</a>. </p>
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<img alt="Armed soldiers stand in El Salvador Congress as lawmakers arrive." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377806/original/file-20210108-21-11unmjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Armed Special Forces soldiers of the Salvadoran Army, following orders of President Nayib Bukele, enter Congress upon the arrival of lawmakers in San Salvador in February 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)</span></span>
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<h2>A Trump self-coup?</h2>
<p>Some believe <a href="https://theconversation.com/was-it-a-coup-no-but-siege-on-us-capitol-was-the-election-violence-of-a-fragile-democracy-152803">the Trump-fuelled insurrection comes close to a coup attempt but fails primarily because it wasn’t intended to remove an incumbent</a> from office — on the contrary, it was aimed at keeping him in power. </p>
<p>But self-coups have been used by the executive branches of governments to quash legislative opposition or end standoffs between leaders and the legislatures of their own party, as in El Salvador. Civilian insurrections have also been classified as coups in banana republics. The events of Jan. 6 meet both criteria.</p>
<p>Trump’s <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-told-supporters-stormed-capitol-hill/story?id=75110558">speech at his rally prior to the raid on the Capitol</a> made clear that he wanted Congress to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.</p>
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<img alt="Women carrying Trump Won Big and Stop The Steal signs on Capitol Hill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377801/original/file-20210108-13-m1t4x0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)</span></span>
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<p>He stated, falsely, that “for years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud [aided by] weak Republicans.” He asked his followers to march on the Capitol to “fight for Trump” and once the siege was underway, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/pence-not-trump-activated-the-national-guard-report.html">he refused requests for the National Guard to be deployed</a> to help quell the violence. </p>
<p>By the end of the day, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/remove-trump-incitement-sedition-25th-amendment/2021/01/06/b22c6ad4-506d-11eb-b96e-0e54447b23a1_story.html">the <em>Washington Post</em></a> and <a href="https://abc11.com/what-is-the-25th-amendment-donald-trump-twitter-congress/9420150/">several political</a> and <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/business-leaders-call-for-action-on-trump-after-mob-siege-at-capitol-11609976655">business leaders were calling on Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution</a> to remove him from office. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-the-25th-amendment-work-and-can-it-be-used-to-remove-trump-from-office-after-us-capitol-attack-152869">How does the 25th Amendment work, and can it be used to remove Trump from office after US Capitol attack?</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-tweets-impeachment-coup-he-s-almost-right-not-way-ncna1108346">Trump had referred to his impeachment in 2020 as a coup attempt</a>, so <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/25th-amendment-cabinet-secretaries/index.html">if the 25th Amendment is invoked by Vice-President Mike Pence</a>, Trump and his allies would certainly view that as a form of coup.</p>
<p>In banana republics, some would call that a counter-coup — a coup to re-establish a government that was brought down by a coup. The counter-coup is sometimes celebrated, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/us-elections/claims-us-is-third-world-banana-republic-is-misreading-of-history-654562">because contrary to dominant views on coups</a>, some subvert democracy while others are welcomed as they restore democratically elected leaders.</p>
<p>This week’s events have stopped short of the U.S. devolving into a full-fledged banana republic. But that’s no thanks to Trump and his supporters. Rather than denigrating other nations as banana republics for their penchant for insurrections and lawless coups, the United States needs to take a long look inward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ako Ufodike does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than denigrating other nations as banana republics for their penchant for insurrections and lawless coups, the United States needs to take a long look inward following the raid on the Capitol.Ako Ufodike, Assistant Professor, public policy, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1398972020-07-15T13:49:46Z2020-07-15T13:49:46ZA tale of two coffee farmers: how they are surviving the pandemic in Honduras<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347659/original/file-20200715-25-315fch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nothing to roast about. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/series-photography-making-honduran-coffee-1520391545">Quiony Navarro</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am a third-generation member of a farming family in Honduras. I fondly remember getting up before dawn every day and riding several miles on the back of a mule to join in the family coffee harvest. </p>
<p>You get involved in everything from tasting the coffee berries to see if they are ready, to picking and preparing them for drying in the sun. Every family has its own recipe for a final product: in our case, we would harvest cinnamon bark from trees on the farm and blend it with the ground beans. </p>
<p>My family is one of thousands that provide the world with its daily dose of caffeine by supplying beans with all their distinctive flavours to roasters and baristas everywhere. In normal times, around 2 billion cups of coffee <a href="https://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/coffee-in-the-uk/coffee-facts">are consumed</a> worldwide every day. </p>
<p>But the coffee business has been hit hard by COVID-19 – particularly producers like my family who are dedicated to cultivating high-quality coffee for export. They are not used to selling coffee within the country and are not diversified into other agricultural products. Due to the pandemic, the government has imposed restrictions that have prevented millions of sacks of coffee from being exported.</p>
<p>Honduras is <a href="https://farrerscoffee.co.uk/top-10-coffee-producing-countries-around-the-world/">the sixth-largest</a> coffee producer in the world, and several growers have achieved record prices in international coffee auctions in the past decade, and awards for the quality of their coffee. This <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/-(626f6326-1e3a-47ae-b82e-9285ce3d237a).html">has helped</a> coffee-farming families <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/-(58a7bc23-0460-42a9-8cba-b52f360d022d).html">to develop</a> solid commercial relationships with buyers large and small. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347634/original/file-20200715-15-32549w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Allan Discua-Cruz working on the family coffee farm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Discua Cruz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I contacted coffee-producing families in different areas of Honduras to talk about how they are getting by. They were experiencing unprecedented business disruption. Many farmers have seen their incomes swept away, and are having to dig deep to survive. Yet I was surprised at the resilience being shown by the people I talked to. Here are some of their stories:</p>
<h2>Café Aruco: the cooperative</h2>
<p>Donaldo Gonzalez is the general manager of <a href="http://www.cafearuco.com/">Café Aruco</a>, a large coffee cooperative of over 200 farmers in the north-west of Honduras:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had just finished collecting the coffee harvest in the early months of 2020 and our main warehouse was full. Last year we exported coffee to seven countries. We sent about 40,000 sacks and we were looking to send a similar or higher quantity this year.</p>
<p>Most of our harvest was ready to be packed and shipped. The contracts were already signed for our coffee to go the UK, the US and other international destinations. But suddenly, everything had to stop. It was surreal when we received telephone calls from our international buyers saying we could not ship our products because they would not be offloaded.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347635/original/file-20200715-35-wa53h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fully stocked: the Café Aruco warehouse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Discua Cruz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forced to cease trading and stay at home, Donaldo has been planting coffee trees with his children in the family farm. He has been them “tricks of the trade” that were handed down to him and sharing the stories of previous generations – the sort of thing for which time is normally very limited in farmers’ incredibly long days. </p>
<p>He said the lockdown has been a chance for him and other busy farmers in the cooperative to reconnect with colleagues by phone. They have shared ideas about adapting their processes to prevent the spread of the virus. </p>
<p>They have been discussing ways of maximising what they can sell locally – admittedly a much smaller market than export. This has flowed from efforts to help the country during the crisis, for example by giving coffee to local hospitals. Farmers in the cooperative are thinking about how to attract Hondurans from towns and cities to come and experience their coffee in its rural setting. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our customers overseas are waiting to have our product in their shops and we are just waiting for the lockdown to be lifted. This crisis has allowed us to rethink how we can do business. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Café Papatoño: the family business</h2>
<p>Leonardo Borjas is a third-generation member of a coffee-producing family in the south-east of the country. The family farms various other products, including livestock, and several years ago asked Leonardo to use his skills as an agricultural engineer to develop their coffee crop as a high-quality export. </p>
<p>In 2018 he introduced a range of gourmet roasted coffee products under the Café Papatoño brand, named after his grandfather, and started a high-end coffee shop under the same label. He told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As lockdown started we were facing challenging times. People would not be able to visit and purchase our products. We could not export anywhere. Also, international coffee prices remained low compared to previous years. </p>
<p>I have two choices. Either I allow this crisis to break me or it will allow me to break records. People in Honduras want coffee during the crisis. For some people coffee, is an affordable luxury. They are demanding coffee beans to grind at home or a good cup from our shop during lockdown. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347636/original/file-20200715-29-p1enoh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Borjas plantation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Discua Cruz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leonardo described how he has introduced changes such as backpacks so that motorcyclists can deliver his product to people’s doors, and a system to allow people to pay for coffee in rural areas by phone. </p>
<p>He is now struggling to cope with local demand, having seen that customers are choosing his coffee over alternatives from popular chains. It’s a big contrast to the warnings friends gave him in 2018 that he would have a hard time convincing people to pay extra.</p>
<p>He believes that customers are buying his coffee both because of its quality and because he’s now communicating its values and heritage in the packaging. As he puts it, “quality speaks for itself, and in times of crisis that voice is louder”. </p>
<p>As international customers remain on standby during the crisis, coffee-farming families that have invested in improving coffee quality and communicating their story effectively will hopefully re-emerge stronger when demand returns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allan Discua-Cruz's family run a coffee farm in Honduras. </span></em></p>Millions of sacks of beans for export have been stuck in warehouses during the crisis.Allan Discua-Cruz, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238482019-10-07T12:38:09Z2019-10-07T12:38:09ZThe Supreme Court and refugees at the southern border: 5 questions answered<p>I sat in a small room in Tijuana, Mexico with a 13-year-old indigenous Mayan Guatemalan girl. </p>
<p>She left Guatemala after a cartel murdered her friend and threatened to rape her. Her mother wanted her to live and believed the only way for her to survive was to send her daughter alone to the U.S., to apply for asylum. </p>
<p>Now she was alone and stuck in Mexico. </p>
<p>Every morning, the Guatemalan girl, along with other asylum seekers, would frantically gather at the Tijuana-U.S. border where they waited to hear <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/29/737268856/metering-at-the-border">their name or their number</a> called so the Mexican government could escort them to the U.S. border.</p>
<p><a href="https://law.vanderbilt.edu/bio/karla-mckanders">As the director of the Immigration Clinic,</a> I was in Tijuana, <a href="https://www.tba.org/connect/beyond-walls-and-policies">with my law student</a> from the <a href="https://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/clinical-legal-education/immigration-practice-clinic/index.php">Vanderbilt University Law School Immigration Practice Clinic</a>. In the clinic, we represent asylum seekers in deportation proceedings before the U.S. immigration courts. We traveled to the Tijuana border in December to volunteer with the legal services nonprofit <a href="https://alotrolado.org">Al Otro Lado</a>. </p>
<p>On my trip, I witnessed the contradictions between human rights protections in the Refugee Convention and how the asylum system was operating in practice. </p>
<p>The administration’s formalizing of informal policies I witnessed in December, along with the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/19a230_k53l.pdf">Barr v. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant</a> in September, closes the southern border to asylum seekers.</p>
<p>In implementing these policies, the U.S. is acting in violation of its own law governing treatment of refugees, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158">U.S. 1980 Refugee Act</a>. The Q&A below illustrates what the U.S. should be doing, under law – and what it isn’t doing.</p>
<h2>1. What are the responsibilities of the US toward refugees?</h2>
<p><a href="https://cms.emergency.unhcr.org/documents/11982/55726/Convention+relating+to+the+Status+of+Refugees+%28signed+28+July+1951%2C+entered+into+force+22+April+1954%29+189+UNTS+150+and+Protocol+relating+to+the+Status+of+Refugees+%28signed+31+January+1967%2C+entered+into+force+4+October+167%29+606+UNTS+267/0bf3248a-cfa8-4a60-864d-65cdfece1d47">The Refugee Convention was drafted after the Holocaust</a>, when Jewish refugees were denied protection. The denial of protection resulted in some of the returnees dying in Europe. The events of the Holocaust prompted the international community to enshrine the duty to not return an individual to a country where they would face persecution or death. </p>
<p>In 1968, the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/protection/basic/3b73b0d63/states-parties-1951-convention-its-1967-protocol.html">U.S. signed onto the provisions of the Refugee Convention</a>. The United States and other countries that signed the Refugee Convention agreed that they would not return a person to their home country if the person fled because of a fear of past or future persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. </p>
<p>In 1980, the U.S. modified the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158">Immigration and Nationality Act</a> to provide full protection to asylum seekers. The procedures, contained in the act, lay out how an asylum seeker can approach the border, express a fear of returning and have a court hearing with a U.S. immigration judge to determine whether they are a refugee. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=982%2C1439%2C2032%2C896&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=982%2C1439%2C2032%2C896&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293701/original/file-20190923-54813-k825cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A refugee camp in Tijuana, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2hkJPiD">Karla McKanders</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. How have policies at the border changed?</h2>
<p>In January, the administration signed an executive order, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/01/24/migrant-protection-protocols">the Migration Protection Protocols</a>. This order modified procedures under the 1980 Refugee Act in that asylum seekers must now wait in Mexico and for their asylum hearings before U.S. immigration judges.</p>
<p>In April, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-additional-measures-enhance-border-security-restore-integrity-immigration-system/">administration proposed new regulations</a> that would impose fees on asylum applicants and would preclude applicants from lawfully working in the U.S. while their applications are pending.</p>
<p>In May, the chief officer for the Asylum Division with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/minor-children-applying-asylum-themselves">diminished key protections for unaccompanied minor children</a>. One change would prevent a child – like the asylum seeker I interviewed from Guatemala – from presenting her asylum case before a nonadversarial asylum officer in an interview instead of going to immigration court.</p>
<h2>3. What are the policies for asylum seekers in transit?</h2>
<p>Under the U.S. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158">Immigration and Nationality Act</a>, a person is not entitled to refugee protection if the U.S. has a valid safe third country agreement with countries through which an asylum seeker travels. </p>
<p>According to U.S. law and <a href="https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=4bab55da2">United Nations</a>, a safe third country is one in which the asylum seekers’ life or freedom would not be threatened. Before such agreements go into effect, that country must provide fair procedures for people in transit to apply for asylum or equivalent protection. </p>
<p>In July, the administration <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Federal-Rule.pdf">published a rule</a> banning all asylum seekers who traveled through a safe third country in transit to the United States from applying for asylum. </p>
<p>In the background of this rule is the fact that this year, the administration entered into safe third country agreements with Central American countries: <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/09/20/joint-statement-between-us-government-and-government-el-salvador">El Salvador</a>, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/09/21/joint-statement-between-us-government-and-government-honduras">Honduras</a> and <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Guatemala-Cooperative-Agreement-with-Signature-Blocks-ENG.pdf">Guatemala</a>.</p>
<p>But these countries are only marginally safe, even for their own nationals.</p>
<p><iframe id="TS2gA" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/TS2gA/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45489">Northern Triangle countries</a> have extremely elevated homicide rates; high crime by drug traffickers, gangs and other criminal groups; and corrupt public institutions. <a href="https://www.undispatch.com/countries-with-the-highest-murder-rates-ranked-in-a-new-un-report/">In Honduras and El Salvador</a>, homicide rates for males under 30 are the highest in the world. </p>
<p>The high incidence of violence, has, in part, led to the constant migration from the Northern Triangle.</p>
<h2>4. What happened with the lawsuit challenging the administration’s new rule?</h2>
<p>The refugee legal advocacy organization, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, challenged the administration’s <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Federal-Rule.pdf">interim rule</a>. This case <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/19a230_k53l.pdf">made its way to the Supreme Court</a>. </p>
<p>On Sept. 11, the Supreme Court issued an order <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/19a230_k53l.pdf">Barr v. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant</a> lifting the <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/08/16/19-16487.pdf">Ninth Circuit’s</a> order <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Federal-Rule.pdf">halting the rule’s implementation</a>.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s order does not have a written opinion, nor does it indicate how the individual justices voted. There is only a dissent written by Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsberg. </p>
<p>The case is now back before the Ninth Circuit, before even possibly coming back for the Supreme Court to evaluate the merits of the case.</p>
<p>While the case is proceeding through the court system, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/19a230_k53l.pdf">Supreme Court’s order</a> shuts down the southern border to asylum seekers indefinitely. </p>
<h2>5. What happens now?</h2>
<p>The administration’s changes to the asylum system are now being enforced.</p>
<p>That leaves individuals at risk of staying in unsafe countries with <a href="https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/images/zdocs/Safe-Third-Countries---May-2018.pdf">marginally operational systems for processing asylum seekers</a> or being deported to their home countries, where they could face persecution or death. </p>
<p><iframe id="LDjKu" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LDjKu/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/msf_forced-to-flee-central-americas-northern-triangle_e.pdf">Doctors without Borders found</a> that 68% of migrants from the Northern Triangle reported being victims of violence during their trip. Nearly one-third of women had been sexually assaulted. Perpetrators include gang members and Mexican security forces. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence">Another report</a> documented more than 60 cases where deportation back to the Northern Triangle resulted in persecution.</p>
<p>As a practicing immigration law attorney and professor looking at the evidence, it seems clear to me that the interim rule places at risk the lives of multiple asylum seekers.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karla Mari McKanders is affiliated with the American Bar Association, Commission on Immigration. </span></em></p>The US is violating its own law governing treatment of refugees.Karla Mari McKanders, Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207242019-08-15T23:06:22Z2019-08-15T23:06:22ZThe role of Canadian mining in the plight of Central American migrants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288047/original/file-20190814-136186-1isvs9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C90%2C5299%2C3186&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this April 2019 photo, migrants planning to join a caravan of several hundred people hoping to reach the United States wait at the bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In October 2018, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/honduran-migrant-caravan-grows-4000-amid-spike-u-s-border-n921286">a group of some 4,000 migrants set out en masse from Honduras</a>, headed north toward the United States-Mexico border. </p>
<p>In the weeks that followed, an all-out panic over this “migrant caravan” gripped the U.S. political mainstream. Donald Trump’s administration painted the caravan as a Trojan Horse, teeming with traffickers, criminals and gang members. The spectacle of the caravan eventually gave way to that of the border itself, which daily throws up new horrors: harrowing images of migrant detainees crowded into squalid concentration camps, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/31/el-paso-border-bridge-migrants-trump-beto-orourke">held in cages under freeway overpasses</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/26/father-daughter-who-drowned-border-dove-into-river-desperation/?utm_term=.62e5a35eee49">drowned in the waters of the Rio Grande</a>. </p>
<p>It can be easy to imagine that as Canadians, we have little direct stake in this drama. We are reassured in this thinking by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48696974">recent reports</a> declaring that Canada resettled more refugees than any other nation in 2018. Such accomplishments, we tell ourselves, make us mere observers of the humanitarian calamity currently unfolding at the U.S. southern border. </p>
<p>Never has it been more necessary to abandon this fantasy. Canada is centrally involved in the life-and-death struggle for migrant justice in the United States. Our foreign economic policies and domestic asylum laws are working in tandem with the U.S. and exposing asylum-seekers, particularly those from Latin America, to the worst excesses of a punitive American immigration system. </p>
<h2>Canada is complicit</h2>
<p>Though Canada is generally understood as a modest “middle power” whose foreign interventions are mostly limited to peacekeeping missions, the vast global reach of Canadian business and investment capital — particularly in mining — tells a different story.</p>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/extraction-empire">As Pierre Bélanger, a Harvard mining researcher and landscape architect, shows</a>, fully two-thirds of the world’s mining firms are currently incorporated in Canada, making our mining industry the largest in the world. Under Canadian law, these companies benefit from generous tax incentives, a favourable regulatory environment and easy access to the Toronto Stock Exchange, known as the TSX — <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/trading-on-the-toronto-stock-exchange-tsx-1978971">among the globe’s leading commodities exchange markets</a>. </p>
<p>Coupled with a foreign policy framework <a href="http://lap.sagepub.com/content/40/5/44">designed specifically</a> to secure favourable investment conditions for Canadian capital abroad, these affordances have helped firms like <a href="https://www.newmontgoldcorp.com/">Goldcorp</a> (Newmont Goldcorp since January 2019), <a href="https://www.barrick.com/English/home/default.aspx">Barrick Gold</a> and <a href="https://www.teck.com/">Teck</a> extend their operations to almost all corners of the world. </p>
<p>But perhaps nowhere do they operate as intensively <a href="https://miningwatch.ca/sites/default/files/CERLAC_mining_report.pdf">as in Latin America</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://cidpnsi.ca/canadian-mining-investments-in-latin-america/">As of 2013</a>, Canadian mining companies operated some 80 projects across the region, with nearly 50 more in the development or feasibility stage. In 2012, these operations, most of them in Mexico, Chile and Peru, generated more than US$19 billion in revenue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288048/original/file-20190814-136213-11bsuw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This May 2013 photo shows El Corral, a village of 200 inhabitants, mostly from the Diaguita ethnic group, located just downstream from the world’s highest gold mine, Barrick Gold’s Pascua-Lama project in northern Chile. It was ultimately ordered closed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Jorge Saenz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This outsized presence <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6908310/Canada_and_the_Honduran_Coup">has made Canada the third-largest investor</a> in Latin America globally. </p>
<p>At the same time, it has made Canadian capital one of the most <a href="https://justice-project.org/the-canada-brand-violence-and-canadian-mining-companies-in-latin-america/?utm_source=MiningWatch+Canada&utm_campaign=43c406ecf6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_11_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49649c74b8-43c406ecf6-103735165">disruptive</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7b7ned/canadian-mining-companies-are-destroying-latin-america-924">belligerent</a> forces in the region. </p>
<h2>Honduras</h2>
<p>Consider the case of Honduras, where in the early 2000s, Canadian investment <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6908310/Canada_and_the_Honduran_Coup">surpassed $100 million</a>, much of it concentrated in mining and exploration. In response to popular discontent with the scale of these operations and their <a href="https://www.academia.edu/14966387/Land_Seizure_Dispossession_and_Canadian_Capital_in_Honduras">adverse environmental and public health effects</a>, the centre-left President Manuel Zelaya proposed a series of modest checks on the industry following his election in 2005. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287743/original/file-20190812-71926-wogva7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Honduras’s ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, is seen in this October 2009 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While these policies triggered a decline in foreign-direct investment, they were by no means catastrophic. All the same, the new policies elicited a strong response both among the Honduran elite and among those — like Canada — with a vested interest in the sustained growth of the mining sector.</p>
<p>Little surprise that when Zelaya was forced into exile during a 2009 military coup, the Canadian state <a href="http://lap.sagepub.com/content/40/5/44">threw its diplomatic weight behind his opponent</a>, Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo,
who was widely expected to implement laws favourable to the mining sector. This despite his regime’s well-documented use of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/02/us-silent-as-honduras-protesters-killed-in-post-election-violence">violent force</a> against <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/12/honduras-government-deploys-dangerous-and-illegal-tactics-to-silence-population/">dissidents</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/honduran-journalists-face-increasing-threats-intimidation-180503112711060.html">journalists</a>. </p>
<p>One need not support Zelaya to grasp how this cozy alliance between Canadian foreign investment policy, the interests of Canadian mining firms and the repressive activities of a dictatorship widely seen as illegitimate might conspire to drive Hondurans north by the thousands. This alliance, after all, has by <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/environment-has-become-new-frontline-human-rights-defenders">many reports</a> only intensified <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/ten-years-coup-hondurans-flee-violence-repression-190628150952496.html">political</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-honduras-environment/honduras-most-dangerous-country-for-environmental-activists-report-idUSKBN0NB0AW20150420">repression</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/31/goldcorp-honduras-pollution-allegations">environmental degradation</a> in the country.</p>
<p>Yet even as Canada contributes to the disruption of communities in Honduras and elsewhere in Latin America, it remains obstinate in restricting Latin American access to asylum protections. This is due in large part to Canadian Parliament’s failure to repeal the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/agreements/safe-third-country-agreement/final-text.html">2004 Safe Third Country Agreement</a> (STCA). </p>
<h2>Commitment to accept refugees</h2>
<p>Since 1969, Canada has been signatory to the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/1951-refugee-convention.html">United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a>. Among other things, this framework commits Canada to accepting refugees who face threats of persecution, violence or repression in their home countries or in any other territory. It also mandates that we may only reject asylum claims if the claimant can be returned to some “safe” third country. </p>
<p>The STCA legally declared the United States one such country. </p>
<p>The agreement also specifies that Canada will only entertain asylum claims from those whose first point of arrival is a Canadian port of entry, and not some other place where they might safely file such a claim, like the United States.</p>
<p>Given the economic barriers that Latin American migrants face in securing uninterrupted passage to Canada, declaring the U.S. safe, <a href="https://ccrweb.ca/en/why-US-not-safe-challenging-STCA">in the words of the Canadian Council for Refugees</a>, “closes the door on most refugee claimants presenting themselves at an official port of entry at the U.S.-Canada border: instead of being allowed to enter Canada to make a refugee claim, they are sent back to the U.S.” </p>
<p>Never a sound principle, in recent months the case for the United States as a safe third country has evaporated altogether.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-abolish-the-inhumane-canada-u-s-deal-on-asylum-seekers-96107">It's time to abolish the inhumane Canada-U.S. deal on asylum-seekers</a>
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<p>No country where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/us/ice-raids.html">immigrant families so fear arrest that they hesitate to leave their homes</a> is a safe one. No country where the detention of even those with documentation is routinely dismissed as
“<a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ice-collateral-arrests-20180204-story.html">collateral damage</a>” is a safe one. And no country where asylum-seekers and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-citizen-detained-by-ice-francisco-erwin-galicia-border-officials-conditions-bad-almost-self-deported/">even full citizens</a> are corralled into camps as elected officials cobble together new ways to restrict the mobility of migrants abroad — <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/trump-guatemala-safe-third-country-asylum-agreement">conjuring yet more “safe third countries” into existence</a> — can be called safe. </p>
<p>By refusing to repeal the STCA, even as it enables the displacement of communities across Latin America, the Canadian government implicates itself in these abuses. </p>
<p>We Canadians, then, are faced with a choice. We can continue to indulge the fantasy that we are peripheral to the fate of Latin American migrants in the United States. Or we can work to hold our government to account for how its policies, implemented in our name, chart a path for migrants that leads squarely to camps. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Morgenstern receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is a member of the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. </span></em></p>Canada is playing a role in the life-and-death struggle for migrant justice in the United States – from our foreign economic policies to the actions of our mining companies and domestic asylum laws.Tyler Morgenstern, PhD candidate, media studies; social sciences doctoral fellow, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1199202019-07-14T12:19:25Z2019-07-14T12:19:25ZAs Mexico appeases Trump, migrants bear the brunt<p>U.S. President Donald Trump’s politics of control and fear toward Mexico and other Latin American countries has resulted in serious consequences. </p>
<p>In an effort to avoid a tariff of five per cent that would rise gradually to 25 per cent on all Mexican exports to the United States, Mexico agreed on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/us/state-department-mexico-trump.html">the following measures to stop so-called illegal migration through its territory</a>:</p>
<p><strong>1)</strong> Secure the northern and southern borders with 21,500 soldiers from the newly established National Guard; </p>
<p><strong>2)</strong> Strengthen efforts to deter, detain and deport “irregular migrants”; </p>
<p><strong>3)</strong> Dismantle human smuggling organizations; and </p>
<p><strong>4)</strong> Require those migrants who have already entered the United States to await the adjudication of their asylum claims in Mexico.</p>
<h2>Deter, detain, deport</h2>
<p>The bilateral migration announcement on June 7, 2019, corresponded with a field course on migration and human rights we were running in Mexico with undergraduate students from Wilfrid Laurier University. </p>
<p>On the ground, the effects of the U.S.-Mexico agreement were immediate, palpable and harsh.</p>
<p>The three-pronged policy to deter, detain and deport was already in effect under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico, but it was accelerated following the June announcement.</p>
<p>Throughout Mexico, a system of non-governmental shelters provides migrants a place of respite, protection and humanitarian assistance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hope-and-anguish-in-a-mexican-refugee-shelter-researcher-records-stories-of-central-american-asylum-seekers-110147">Hope and anguish in a Mexican refugee shelter: Researcher records stories of Central American asylum seekers</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>We (Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, S. Richelle Monaghan and our students) visited one such shelter in the northern state of Zacatecas. Run by the Catholic Church, the inconspicuous concrete structure is set at the end of a dirt road off a main highway. Fenced in and “protected” by state police, the shelter cares for families with small children. </p>
<p>Of the 120 guests present on the afternoon of our visit, more than half were children. Most were barefoot and wore clothing that was either too big or too small. </p>
<p>As children played a game of duck-duck-goose and squealed with delight, the parents told us about their destination. When they all responded that they were “going home,” we realized that the shelter is being used by Mexican migration authorities as a detention centre for families awaiting deportation back to Guatemala.</p>
<p>At another shelter, one of the largest in Mexico City, we met families waiting for permanent refugee status or temporary humanitarian visas. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283772/original/file-20190711-173370-17i91k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laurier University student Madison Drost converses with a little boy at a Mexico City migrant shelter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neala Hayratiyan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During a friendly game of ping pong, we were approached by a little girl. She nodded at our invitation to play, but stood frozen as the ball bounced off her arms. </p>
<p>I (Stacey) put the ping pong paddle down, knelt to her level and asked if she was sleepy. When she indicated she was not, I hugged her until her body relaxed and her chin rested on my shoulder. I then learned that the little girl had arrived only minutes before with her parents. After what must have been a long and harrowing journey from Honduras, she was dazed and in shock, possibly afflicted by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41748485?fbclid=IwAR0moTS6b-XvrLvOQjreMjRXcqOasKo1fu7grjpaavGOggHloO09KxqoIZc">resignation syndrome</a></p>
<h2>Frontera Sur: The gateway to North America</h2>
<p>The ramifications of the migration agreement are most pronounced along Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, an area known as the Frontera Sur in the Mexican state of Chiapas. </p>
<p>In the city of Tapachula, Chiapas shelters are so full that people waiting to receive refugee status have no option but to camp out in the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/trumps-border-policy-takes-toll-mexico-migrant-caravans-turned/">city’s Plaza Hidalgo</a>. Here they wait for weeks or months, completely exposed to the elements as scorching hot, humid days end in torrential evening rains. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283771/original/file-20190711-173329-bfej7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Central Americans camped out in Plaza Hidalgo in the city of Tapachula, Chiapas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we sat in a nearby restaurant, another little girl asked us for food. We followed her back to the plaza and met her family. Her parents spoke with us while they fanned her baby brother, who slept on the bare concrete. </p>
<p>“Where are you from?” we asked. </p>
<p>“Aren’t you going to ask me where I am from?” responded the pre-schooler. </p>
<p>“Where are you from?” we repeated. </p>
<p>“Honduras” she smiled. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/06/18/mexico-border-crackdown-some-central-american-migrants-heading-south/1487354001/">Ciudad Hidalgo</a>, Chiapas, the border town where 98 per cent of irregular border crossings occur, Central Americans await their return trip to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras on the shiny white tour bus that leaves the migration facility each afternoon. </p>
<p>Those not from Central America, such as the hundreds of Haitian migrants who are also stranded on the border, will be returned on planes.</p>
<h2>Unwelcome National Guard</h2>
<p>When we arrived on June 29 at the shore of the Rio Suchiate that divides Mexico from neighbouring Guatemala, state police were present but the National Guard was just arriving. </p>
<p>The daily flurry of black market trade between the two countries continued unchecked as merchandise floated across the river on rafts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mexicos-frontera-sur-life-carries-on-in-this-place-of-permanent-mobility-112686">Mexico's frontera sur: Life carries on in this place of permanent mobility</a>
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<p>Merchants expressed concern that the soldiers would disrupt the daily exchanges of goods upon which both local economies are dependent. In the Frontera Sur, Guatemalans and Mexicans move back and forth over the river with little need to prove their country of citizenship. </p>
<p>The presence of some elements of the National Guard has also compelled migrants to reinvent new routes that are often more dangerous. And rather than being dismantled, networks of human smugglers, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/border-business-immigration-coyotes-cbsn-originals/">known as “coyotes,”</a> appear to have grown even stronger. <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN1U32B4-OCATP">Several truck trailers have already been reported abandoned with men, women and children inside</a>. </p>
<p>At a secondary border crossing in Talisman, Chiapas, migration officials stopped us as we headed to the port of entry. However, two state police allowed us to walk along the river and underneath the bridge. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283144/original/file-20190708-51278-c3vf7c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this photo, people cross the Rio Suchiate using a rope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the bridge, official business takes place: passports are stamped, customs duties are collected and people await documentation to enter Mexican territory. Under the bridge, unofficial business takes place. </p>
<p>Here we observed a man being paid by another to take off his clothes and transport goods on his back by wading through the rapids. We also watched a family exit a raft attached to a rope extending to each bank of the Rio Suchiate.</p>
<p>The family said “buenos dias” as they passed, exchanged words (and possibly money) with the police officers and entered Mexico.</p>
<h2>Everyone has the right to seek asylum</h2>
<p>A long history of U.S. exploitation and oppression portrays Central Americans as undeserving of prosperity, and criminal. Over the past month in Mexico, we were reminded once again that these migrants are not nameless, faceless statistics. They are people. </p>
<p>Nor are they illegal. They are exercising their rights to flee dreadful conditions of deeply entrenched economic insecurity, social exclusion, legacies of war and chronic violence. </p>
<p>The recent migration agreement between the United States and Mexico violates international refugee law and <a href="http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/LRPCAP_301014.pdf">Mexico’s 2011 Refugee Law</a>, which de-criminalized migrating through Mexico without documents. </p>
<p>Under the 2011 law, the government provided migrant shelters with exceptional status from Mexico’s migration authorities. They are meant to be sanctuaries, not detention centres. </p>
<p>The 2011 law also gives people entering Mexican territory 30 days to apply for asylum. However, in its haste to placate Trump, Mexico is detaining and deporting asylum seekers before the deadline passes.</p>
<h2>Complications, contradictions of migration</h2>
<p>We were also reminded during our time in Mexico that migration is <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/amet.12053">complicated and often contradictory</a>. Residents in Tapachula, Chiapas depend on migrants as consumers even as they also resent their presence in the community. Migrant shelters provide much-needed humanitarian assistance, yet they also facilitate irregular migration, hence falling into the American category of “human smuggling operations.” </p>
<p>In the end, it’s likely the United States will continue to threaten Mexico with trade tariffs, and Mexico will respond with more drastic, inhumane measures. </p>
<p>But these measures will not stop the migration. Desperation is, after all, a powerful motivator.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The U.S. will likely continue to threaten Mexico with trade tariffs due to Central American migrants, and Mexico will respond with more drastic, inhumane measures. None of it will stop migration.Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, Associate Professor Human Rights & Human Diversity, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityDiana Correa Corrales, Associate lecturer, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de MonterreyIván Francisco Porraz Gómez, Profesor-Investigador, ECOSURS. Richelle Monaghan, Associate Professor and Chair of Health Studies Department, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1195232019-07-09T11:23:14Z2019-07-09T11:23:14ZThe long, bipartisan history of dealing with immigrants harshly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282527/original/file-20190703-126396-1fjdl5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of Mexican laborers boarding a train in Chicago to be deported in 1951.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Illinois-United-/109ca9f94de4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/63/0">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the Trump administration’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-travel-ban-targeting-muslims-will-not-make-america-safer-97519">Muslim travel ban</a> to its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-separating-families-in-the-us-and-how-the-trauma-lingers-98616">family separation policy</a>, many <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/64-oppose-trumps-move-build-wall-asylum-30/story?id=62702683">Americans object</a> to the White House’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/17/trump-immigration-plan-us-constitution">hardline immigration policies</a> as a historical aberration out of sync with U.S. values.</p>
<p>Having explored the evolution of these policies and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520297098/mortal-doubt">their consequences</a> as both a practitioner of immigration law and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kyaT7bwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of U.S.-Latin American relations</a>, I disagree. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283127/original/file-20190708-51253-vu5bzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A group of women and children at the Angel Island Immigration Station in the 1920s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/America-And-Immigration/e178143aa3604eaa8bdab4fccef8699e/4/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than marking a stark departure, I see President Donald Trump’s approach as ramping up and expanding the U.S. government’s longstanding efforts to punish undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>His record on immigration does appear to be more <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/taxonomy/term/692">inhumane</a> and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/20/trump-cuts-make-children-pawns-dangerous-immigration-game-column/1477456001/">cruel</a> than that of his predecessors. But his legacy will not, I’m afraid, be un-American.</p>
<h2>Racism, recession and war</h2>
<p>Following a long history of more open and welcoming immigration policies, in the first half of the 20th-century U.S. attitudes toward immigration became increasingly restrictionist. Racism against immigrants of color drove immigration legislation, especially during economic downturns and political turmoil.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1924, the government set <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act">national immigration quotas</a>. <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444">Due to a belief in eugenics</a>, a pseudo-science claiming that Nordic and Anglo-Saxon races are superior to all others, the authorities effectively cut off legal immigration from all but a few Western European nations. </p>
<p>Lawmakers claimed it was for the sake of preserving and improving upon the nation’s ethno-linguistic heritage as recorded in the 1890 census. The count excluded <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078">most African Americans</a> and all <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-Exclusion-Act">Chinese Americans</a>.</p>
<p>There were no quotas for <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2015/03/the-history-of-mexican-immigration-to-the-u-s-in-the-early-20th-century/">immigrants from neighboring countries</a>, however. And so then, as now, Mexican migrants filled industrial and agricultural <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-care-about-undocumented-immigrants-for-one-thing-theyve-become-vital-to-key-sectors-of-the-us-economy-98790">labor shortages</a>, especially across the Southwest. </p>
<p>But once the Great Depression began and unemployment soared, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452276274.n739">President Herbert Hoover</a> bowed to popular pressure to preserve “American jobs for real Americans” and approved the <a href="https://unmpress.com/books/decade-betrayal/9780826339737">large-scale deportation</a> of Mexican workers and their families.</p>
<p>Largely carried out by local law enforcement between <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas-brutal-forgotten-history-of-illegal-deportations/517971/">1929 and 1936</a>, the deportation dragnets rounded up hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent – <a href="https://www.colorlines.com/articles/la-county-sorry-tens-thousands-deportations-depression">many of them U.S.-born citizens</a> – and forced them onto trains bound for Mexico. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282753/original/file-20190704-51312-28stka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexican migrants like these worked in the US starting in 1942 through the Bracero program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft7h4nb2gt/">Dorothea Lange</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The advent of World War II reignited <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/research/japanese-americans/justice-denied/chapter-1.pdf">longstanding anti-Japanese attitudes</a>. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration forced nearly 120,000 people of Japanese descent – most of them U.S. citizens – into <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation">remote internment camps</a> between 1942 and 1945. His administration also deported thousands of <a href="https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Denaturalization%20Act%20of%201944/Public%20Law%2078-405/">Japanese Americans</a> who had renounced their citizenship under duress. And the government turned away at least <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-only-following-the-law-doesnt-explain-immigration-policy-during-nazi-era-or-now-98607">200,000 Jewish refugees</a> who were fleeing the Nazis despite the quotas for their countries not being filled.</p>
<p>World War II also revived the U.S. economy, suddenly creating labor shortages in jobs left by those who had joined the war effort. Looking south for a fix, lawmakers established the <a href="http://braceroarchive.org/about">Bracero program</a>. It encouraged and regulated the flow of Mexican migrants primarily employed as farm workers from 1942 until 1965 – when a landmark <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/fifty-years-1965-immigration-and-nationality-act-continues-reshape-united-states">immigration law abolished national quotas</a>.</p>
<p>Many employers preferred to hire undocumented workers to avoid the Bracero program’s bureaucracy and wage restrictions. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower initiated “<a href="https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/HAIC/Historical-Essays/Separate-Interests/Depression-War-Civil-Rights/">Operation Wetback</a>” to force hundreds of thousands of low-paid farm workers to leave the country.</p>
<p>Like Hoover’s deportation spree, officials made little effort to differentiate between the U.S. citizens and noncitizens who got rounded up and deported. Historians have found that <a href="https://timeline.com/mass-deportation-operation-wetback-mexico-eb79174f720b">innumerable U.S.-born people</a> were again among the <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=200520060SB670">hundreds of thousands</a> supposedly repatriated to Mexico. </p>
<h2>Reagan, asylum and amnesty</h2>
<p>Since 2014, growing numbers of Central Americans have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-stories-why-they-flee-114725">seeking asylum</a>. The Trump administration has gone out of its way to discourage these migrants by <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-domestic-abuse-and-anti-gay-violence-qualify-as-persecution-in-asylum-law-98354">changing eligibility criteria</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718627010/trump-calls-for-asylum-seekers-to-pay-fees-proposing-new-restrictions">application procedures</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/03/738385096/federal-judge-blocks-trump-policy-ordering-indefinite-detention-for-asylum-seeke">detention practices</a>.</p>
<p>Large numbers of Central Americans first began to arrive in the U.S. in the 1980s – in many cases fleeing <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520297098">U.S.-backed brutality</a>. Rather than acknowledge its allies’ human rights abuses, the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush labeled these asylum seekers “<a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-americans-and-asylum-policy-reagan-era">economic migrants</a>.” Less than 3% were granted asylum, a fraction of the approval rate for refugees fleeing communist regimes in Eastern Europe and oppression in Iran and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Even so, Reagan also demonstrated generosity toward undocumented migrants. His administration’s 1986 <a href="https://www.countable.us/articles/14254-reagan-s-immigration-reforms-law-date">Immigration Reform and Control Act</a> provided amnesty for over 3 million undocumented immigrants – the vast majority of them from Mexico and Central America – letting them become permanent legal residents. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The immigration reform law enacted in 1986 gave thousands of migrant farm workers a pathway to citizenship.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-CO-USA-APHS473825-Immigration-Amnesty/f60b299bbeb84ddf91609eafa6fe17e0/1/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 1986 law also took major steps to toughen border security to deter future undocumented migration. Combining legalization with deterrence, Reagan hoped, would fix the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/3/1/17064908/immigration-reform-history-restriction-daca-nativism-compromise">nation’s immigration system</a> once and for all.</p>
<p>However, the law created no means of regulating future migration to the U.S. Economic turmoil in Mexico <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4252712/">during the 1980s</a> and early 1990s – especially following the 1994 <a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Eac213/student_projects07/global/nafta.html">North American Free Trade Agreement</a> – pushed more migrants north. As a result, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/03/07/518201210/how-did-we-get-to-11-million-unauthorized-immigrants">millions more people</a> ended up living and working in the U.S. with few prospects for gaining legal status.</p>
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<h2>Clinton’s legacy</h2>
<p>Aside from the <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/reagan-bush-family-fairness-chronological-history">complementary measures</a> adopted during the the first <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/358">Bush presidency</a>, no president since Reagan has signed legislation for another expansive amnesty for the undocumented. With <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/topics/daca-dapa">few exceptions</a>, immigration policies have become increasingly punitive with the passage of time. </p>
<p>More than any other president, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/04/27/bill_clintons_shameful_legacy_on_immigration_terrible_laws_he_signed_rip_apart_families_and_authorize_unjust_detention_human_rights_watch_says/">Bill Clinton</a> paved the way for Trump’s plans to deport millions of undocumented families, terrify others into voluntarily departing and slash legal migration. During his 1996 reelection campaign, Clinton signed the <a href="https://cmsny.org/publications/jmhs-iirira-to-trump/">Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act</a>, one of the most draconian and far-reaching pieces of anti-immigration legislation in U.S. history.</p>
<p>The 1996 law <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11515132/iirira-clinton-immigration">eroded due process</a> for many migrants seeking asylum. It created <a href="https://www.ilrc.org/national-map-287g-agreements">a program</a> that enlists local law enforcement agencies into immigration enforcement. Critics of the program say it drives a wedge between the police and immigrant communities, interfering with law enforcement.</p>
<p>Following the law’s passage, <a href="https://www.axios.com/immigration-ice-deportation-trump-obama-a72a0a44-540d-46bc-a671-cd65cf72f4b1.html">deportation numbers soared</a>, setting new <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/02/12/how-trump-inherited-his-expanding-detention-system">records for the numbers of immigrants detained</a> during the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations.</p>
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<h2>‘Deporter-in-Chief’</h2>
<p>Even as they inherited what immigrant rights advocates call a growing “<a href="https://www.unidosus.org/issues/immigration/articles/deportation-machine-121417">deportation machine</a>,” both George W. Bush and Barack Obama attempted to soften immigration policies.</p>
<p>The second President Bush <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/presidency-of-george-w-bush-721584">accepted record numbers of refugees</a>. Obama created the <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2018/01/the-facts-on-daca/">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</a> program to shield thousands of undocumented migrants who entered the country as children from deportation. </p>
<p>Yet, immigrants rights activists dubbed Obama “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/01/20/510799842/obama-leaves-office-as-deporter-in-chief">deporter in chief</a>,” for having deported more immigrants than any president in history. So far, he retains this title because <a href="https://www.axios.com/immigration-ice-deportation-trump-obama-a72a0a44-540d-46bc-a671-cd65cf72f4b1.html">his administration deported more migrants per year than Trump</a>.</p>
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<h2>Trump’s wider scope</h2>
<p>Trump inherited an immigration system that left millions of <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/06/the-price-of-domestic-workers-invisible-labor-in-us-border-towns/563087/">undocumented people with few rights</a> and a <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-militarization-of-the-southern-border-is-a-long-standing-american-tradition/">militarized southern border</a>. But Trump has sharpened and hypercharged punitive immigration policies. By calling undocumented immigrants “<a href="https://perma.cc/V53X-J6ZT">animals</a>” and conjuring images of vermin who “<a href="https://perma.cc/A586-H6NC">infest</a>” this country, Trump has invoked <a href="https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/white-nationalism-as-immigration-policy/">racist rhetoric toward migrants</a> that no other president since the civil rights movement has used, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-racist-quotes-modern-us-presidents-780168">at least not in public</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-mexico-amlo-immigration-humanitarian-crisis.html">humanitarian catastrophe</a> unfolding at the southern border, Trump axed Obama’s emphasis on deporting immigrants with <a href="https://exchange.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigration-enforcement-priorities-under-trump-administration">serious criminal records</a> or who posed a national security threat. Instead, he has targeted people other presidents tried to protect, such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/09/05/546423550/trump-signals-end-to-daca-calls-on-congress-to-act">immigrant children</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/21/ice-sets-record-arrests-undocumented-immigrants-no-criminal-record/3232476002/">immigrants with no criminal record</a>, those who <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2019/03/05/466885/tps-workers-rebuilding-states-devastated-natural-disasters/">fled major natural disasters</a>, and U.S. <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/immigration/ice-data-tens-of-thousands-of-deported-parents-have-u-s-citizen-kids/">citizens with undocumented loved ones</a>.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has also <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/trump-ice-attorneys-foia-memo-discretion">widened the scope</a> of enforcement actions to include some newcomers who had <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-administration-seeks-to-strip-more-people-of-citizenship-104628">already become U.S. citizens</a>.</p>
<p>And despite Trump’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48842428">symbolic celebrations of the U.S military</a>, the government is apparently <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-u-s-is-denying-citizenship-to-service-members-at-an-unprecedented-rate">stepping up the deportation</a> of <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-416">noncitizen veterans</a> and moving to deport some <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/06/28/new-trump-policies-could-end-in-deporations-for-some-active-duty-troops/">active-duty service members</a> along with their families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony W. Fontes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump has expanded and escalated the most punitive policies he inherited from his predecessors.Anthony W. Fontes, Assistant Professor of Human Security, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1188062019-06-21T12:13:22Z2019-06-21T12:13:22ZIs cutting Central American aid going to help stop the flow of migrants?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280301/original/file-20190619-171258-x9m5f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some USAID programs seek to help raise living standards for families like this one in Western Honduras.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usaid_images/14720125257/">USAID-ACCESO/Fintrac Inc.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump has long made blocking the <a href="https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=826218">thousands of Central Americans</a> who head to the southern U.S. border, most of them seeking asylum, from entering and staying in the country a top priority.</p>
<p>His administration is now stepping up its <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1078638249562775552">pressure on the governments</a> of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to take steps to curtail the migration of their own citizens by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-aid/officials-puzzle-over-u-s-aid-cuts-to-central-america-idUSKCN1RE02M">constricting U.S. aid</a>. About <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0eaa42865d974e46ba04a51e21e1a81b">US$370 million in aid money</a> for the three countries included in the 2018 budget will be spent on other projects, the State Department said on June 17.</p>
<p>“It is critical that there be sufficient political will in these countries to address the problem at its source,” <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0eaa42865d974e46ba04a51e21e1a81b">State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus</a> said.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2127038225_Carmen_Monico">scholar who has researched</a> migration from <a href="http://www.brownwalker.com/ojs/index.php/JTOCS/article/view/84">Central America</a>, especially the arrival of unaccompanied children and teens from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. </p>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases/cutting-aid-central-america-shortsighted-and-counterproductive">many experts</a>, I argue that slashing aid is counterproductive because foreign assistance can address the root causes of migration, such as violence and poverty. I also consider this demand that the region’s governments muster more “<a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-june-17-2019/">political will</a>” to be meaningless, as only sustained human and economic development, along with efforts to combat crime, can make a difference. </p>
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<h2>Aid flows</h2>
<p>U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-foreign-aid-explained-74810">foreign aid</a> to <a href="https://www.usglc.org/faq-violence-migration-and-u-s-assistance-to-central-america/">Central America</a> is supposed to improve economic conditions, bolster agriculture, enhance public safety and security and root out government corruption. </p>
<p>But even though the U.S. has spent <a href="https://explorer.usaid.gov/query">nearly $16 billion on foreign assistance</a> for Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala since 1946 and supported <a href="https://www.iadb.org/en/allianceforprosperity">coordinated regional efforts</a> aimed at deterring migration from the region since 2014, hundreds of thousands of Central Americans, especially the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/children-on-the-run.html">children and teens</a> seeking asylum on their own, are still <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-stories-why-they-flee-114725">fleeing “push” factors</a> back home like <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern-triangle">violence</a> and <a href="http://www.fao.org/americas/noticias/ver/en/c/1152157/">hunger</a>.</p>
<p>So why hasn’t all of this money made more of a difference?</p>
<p>U.S. foreign policy had many objectives in these countries. Along with aid for stability and development, U.S. assistance has emphasized the fight against <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/why-us-aid-cuts-central-america-help-organized-crime/">drug trafficking and police training</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, decades of intense U.S. intervention laid the <a href="https://theconversation.com/todays-us-mexico-border-crisis-in-6-charts-98922">groundwork for today’s violence</a> and instability across the region.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/">Eisenhower administration</a>, for instance, orchestrated the ousting of Guatemala’s democratically elected government in 1954 that ushered in a prolonged civil war. In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration supported the brutal Guatemalan strongman <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/efrain-rios-montt-and-mauricio-rodriguez-sanchez-background/">José Efraín Ríos Montt</a>, who was later convicted of committing genocide. President Ronald Reagan also <a href="https://cja.org/where-we-work/el-salvador/">backed El Salvador’s violent government</a> during a civil war that killed 75,000 people and left the country vulnerable to decades of instability. In addition, his administration turned <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">Honduras into a staging ground</a> for the Nicaraguan <a href="https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/n-contras.php">Contra</a> rebels it financed, militarizing that country and increasing levels of political violence that have never subsided.</p>
<h2>Plans vs. reality</h2>
<p>In 2015, the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/15/fact-sheet-united-states-and-central-america-honoring-our-commitments">Obama administration</a> drafted a <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/02/237092.htm">plan to boost Central American aid</a> that was intended to discourage migrants from making the trip north. In 2016, the White House detailed multiyear aid levels that would remain much higher than before the surge in asylum-seekers began, as long as the three countries made progress on “border security” and other goals.</p>
<p>Instead, the total amount of money Congress obligated – or approved for current and future aid spending – in <a href="https://explorer.usaid.gov/cd/HND?fiscal_year=2018&measure=Disbursements">El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras</a>, has fallen by more than two-thirds, slipping from $604 million in 2015 to $182 million in 2019. A large share of those obligated funds have not been spent. Now, with this announcement, it seems they never will be.</p>
<p>Disbursements, the money actually spent, declined by about one-third from $328 million in 2015 to $217 million in 2019. <a href="https://www.politifact.com/global-news/statements/2017/mar/08/raj-shah/yes-most-us-foreign-aid-flows-through-us-organizat/">U.S. nonprofits and consulting firms</a> have spent most of this money through local civil society groups and international agencies.</p>
<p>The State Department is also saying that the <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-june-17-2019/">U.S. will not authorize any new funding</a> for Central American aid. Because <a href="https://www.cgdev.org/blog/trumps-foreign-assistance-budget-request-3-charts">Congress</a> has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to slash aid before, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-06-17/trump-cuts-aid-central-america-over-migrants-seeking-asylum">it’s not clear how successful</a> this new effort will prove.</p>
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<h2>Questions about effectiveness</h2>
<p>Many economists argue over the question of <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/11/how-effective-is-foreign-aid/">whether foreign aid works</a>. Scholars have not determined that it quells the kind of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12184">violence behind Central America’s mass migration</a>. </p>
<p>Some aid experts find that it only makes the countries that get it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1713">dependent on the nations that donate</a> it, rather than making a lasting difference for the people it’s supposed to help.</p>
<p>Others hold that the problem is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/making-development-aid-more-effective/">how aid is allocated</a>: often in increments that are too small and sporadic and without a proven strategy. </p>
<p>One problem in terms of proving aid effectiveness is choosing the right metrics. One program might not raise local living standards, stop drug trafficking and reduce the number of people who emigrate, but it might achieve one or more of those goals.</p>
<p>And although some critics suspect that aid money is given as blank checks, that concern overlooks the fact that through the U.S. Agency for International Development and <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/results-and-data/budget-spending/top-40-vendors">its contractors</a>, the U.S. government does try to improve <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/evaluation/usaid-program-effectiveness">the effectiveness of its programs</a>, develop pilots and follow up on promising and targeted approaches. </p>
<p>While conducting <a href="https://monicofulbright.wordpress.com/">Fulbright research in Guatemala</a>, I learned about one such evaluation of a USAID <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/CARSI%20IE%20Executive%20Summary.pdf">crime and violence prevention</a> project underway throughout Central America.</p>
<p>The impact evaluation involved 29,000 survey respondents, 848 interviews and 44 focus groups. It found that murders, extortion, drug sales, gang recruitment and fights had declined and there was greater satisfaction with local leadership. The main reason for this program’s success, I believe after interviewing some of the project’s staff, is how well it engaged members of the local community – empowering them to define its priorities.</p>
<p>The assessment of that project did not look into its impact on migration. But the research I conducted on <a href="https://theconversation.com/educating-children-in-guatemala-before-they-decide-to-migrate-to-the-us-border-74680">educational opportunities for at-risk youth in Guatemala</a> strongly suggests that when efforts to stave off violence succeed, opportunities to create small businesses arise and access to a decent education increases, there is much less interest in emigration.</p>
<p>In my past international development work, I have also encountered international assistance efforts that were less effective. Aid that does little more than reflect the donor country’s good intentions doesn’t solve anything. Oversight is necessary, such as ongoing reviews by <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IF10371.pdf">Congress</a> and <a href="https://www.wola.org/monitoring-assistance-central-america/">civil society groups</a> of Central American aid. </p>
<p>While working as a World Bank consultant reviewing development projects around the world, I came to the conclusion that cutting aid prematurely to any project could undercut efforts that might succeed later.</p>
<p>That is why I believe that it doesn’t make sense to cut aid to Central America to punish governments for failing to stop migration. Restricting aid and re-routing assistance to other programs will do nothing about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forced-migration-from-central-america-5-essential-reads-98600">underlying problems that are causing</a> hundreds of thousands of people to risk their lives every year. For only when it becomes possible for people to pursue a better life in their home countries and there are no longer compelling reasons to flee for their lives will the pace of Central American migration subside.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmen Monico does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Done right, aid fosters greater stability and boosts the economy. That reduces incentives to move away.Carmen Monico, Assistant Professor of Human Service Studies, Elon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1147252019-04-09T10:42:33Z2019-04-09T10:42:33ZMigrants’ stories: Why they flee<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268207/original/file-20190408-2924-16ojp3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man hugs his family before leaving for the U.S. border with a migrant caravan from San Salvador, El Salvador, Jan. 16, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/d39e5fc6dbd243618eff52f1c4411697/45/0">AP/Salvador Melendez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/us/crossing-the-border-statistics.html">Massive influxes of Central American families</a> seeking asylum in the United States are overwhelming U.S. immigration facilities. </p>
<p>The crisis along the U.S. southern border led directly to the forced <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/us/politics/kirstjen-nielsen-dhs-resigns.html">resignation on April 7 of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen</a>, whom President Donald Trump believed ineffectively managed the situation. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/02/trump-aides-border-shutdown-disaster-1249828">Trump promises to “shut down the border”</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/us/politics/trump-mexico-illegal-immigration.html">“punish” the governments of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador</a> for failing to stem the exodus from their countries, the question of why so many families are making the difficult and dangerous journey north appears more urgent than ever. </p>
<p>I have spent much of the last decade conducting <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520297098">on-the-ground fieldwork in this region</a>, and along the migration paths through Mexico, seeking answers to this question. </p>
<p>The region’s extreme poverty and violent impunity are central factors driving this migration. </p>
<p>Yet every migrant’s story is unique. Some simply seek the chance to earn enough money to ensure a better future for themselves or their children. Others flee persecution at the hands of gangs, organized crime or corrupt state officials. For others, insecurity and poverty are so intertwined that drawing them apart becomes impossible. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268212/original/file-20190408-2924-jctt6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Santos Isabel Escobar weeps beside the coffin of her 18-year-old son, Eddy Fernando Cabrera, who was executed with four other young people in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Jan. 11, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/Search?query=violence+honduras&ss=10&st=kw&entitysearch=&toItem=18&orderBy=Highlights&searchMediaType=allmedia">AP/Fernando Antonio</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>‘Falling deeper into debt’</h2>
<p>Extreme poverty and inequality haunt the region. Today, about half of all Central Americans – and two-thirds of the rural populations of Guatemala and Honduras – <a href="https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-central-america/">survive below the international poverty line</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, throughout the 21st century, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have consistently counted <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern-triangle">among the most murderous nations in the world</a>. </p>
<p>Many Central American migrants are simply desperate to find work that pays enough to feed their families. U.S. asylum law provides no relief for these “economic refugees.” </p>
<p>I met Roberto Quijones in a migrant shelter in the Mexican state of Tabasco, about 25 mile north of the Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, in late 2017. We spoke as he soaked his blistered feet and tried to mend his busted shoes with duct tape. </p>
<p>Roberto is from a rural town in northwestern El Salvador near the border with Honduras and Guatemala, and had been out of work for two years. For more than a year, he and his wife and their 2-year-old daughter had been living with an aunt. Their welcome had worn thin. </p>
<p>“She’s family,” Roberto said, “but you know you get to a moment when not paying rent isn’t possible anymore. Even if they are family.”</p>
<p>And even for those who can find work, extremely low wages cannot cover families’ basic needs, destroying hope for a better future.</p>
<p>“I can make 200 lempiras, a day working” – the equivalent of US$10 – said Marvin Otoniel Castillo, a father of three from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We spoke in late 2016 beneath a bridge in Veracruz, Mexico, waiting to hop a train to continue northwards. </p>
<p>“So your whole life is falling deeper into debt,” Marvin continued. “That’s why I came. So I could send my oldest child to school so he wouldn’t have to live like his father.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268213/original/file-20190408-2909-tmgx3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A woman sells live baby chicks in central San Salvador, El Salvador. Nearly 1 in 3 Salvadorans lives in poverty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Migrant-Caravan-El-Salvador-Why-They-Leave/1d466429a15443e694cb6775790d117a/30/0">AP/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span>
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<h2>Running for their lives</h2>
<p>Other migrants have been targeted by criminal organizations that operate with stunning impunity in Central America. </p>
<p>Criminal organizations derive much of their power from their deep links with government agents; it’s sometimes impossible to identify where the state ends and the underworld begins. Such connections also make understanding who is responsible for any given murder difficult. </p>
<p>Transnational gangs like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13</a>, play an important role in this violence. Estimates of how much they contribute to overall crime rates vary between countries and are <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/appraising-violence-in-honduras-how-much-is-gang-related/">hampered by extremely low prosecution rates and a lack of reliable data</a>.</p>
<p>However, gangs are responsible for the region’s <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/public-culture/article-abstract/28/3%20(80)/593/85832">most widespread and brutal extortion rackets</a>, which create deep psychological and economic strife for poor Central Americans while also causing countless murders. </p>
<p>The upshot is that many Central Americans trying to enter the United States are literally running for their lives. </p>
<p>That includes Pedro, whose uncle and two brothers were gunned down on a crowded Guatemala City street in 2015 because, he believed, his cousin had stolen from a drug-trafficking organization. Like others I’ve interviewed who are fleeing violent persecution, he requested anonymity to protect himself and family still living in Guatemala. </p>
<p>Pedro said he moved with his wife and two daughters to another part of the city to escape detection. But then police discovered his 13-year-old daughter’s body in an alleyway. </p>
<p>Her assailants had raped her, burned her with cigarettes and knifed her to death. Pedro said that no one would tell him who did it, but he fled with his family to ensure their safety. </p>
<p>Or Alejandra, from a mid-size city west of the Guatemalan capital, who told me she was in her final year of a nurse training program and spending Christmas holidays with family when she witnessed her uncle gunned down in his front yard while he strung up party lights. </p>
<p>The uncle, she said, had refused to pay extortion money to a criminal group run by active and former police officers. The next day, Alejandra received threatening messages on Facebook. She didn’t want to leave the country, but moved in with a friend in another town and tried to lie low. </p>
<p>A few weeks later, Alejandra claimed, the group sent a kid with a handgun to kill her. She escaped by throwing herself from her motorbike. That’s when she decided to give up her career and flee Guatemala. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268214/original/file-20190408-2931-wm4ghv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Central American migrants being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after requesting asylum, in El Paso, Texas, March 28, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pictures.reuters.com/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=2C0FCIDD1367R&SMLS=1&RW=1386&RH=635#/SearchResult&VBID=2C0FCIDD1367R&SMLS=1&RW=1386&RH=635&POPUPPN=39&POPUPIID=2C0FQEQZZP8G0">REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The price of staying</h2>
<p>For financial or personal reasons, many Central Americans are unable or unwilling to flee in the face of such threats. That can exact a steep price. </p>
<p>One evening in late 2018, a woman named Sofia said that members of MS-13 caught her when she was walking home from work in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She’d moved to the city months before with her 12-year-old daughter, because her husband, Pablo, had fled the country to escape the gang’s threats. </p>
<p>Pablo had worked driving a produce truck, but then MS-13 killed his boss for refusing to pay extortion. Gang extortion is believed to be a leading cause of murder in Honduras and though the majority of the country’s extortion victims are poor, they pay about <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/crime-factors-pushing-northern-triangle-migrants-out/">$200 million a year to protect themselves</a>. </p>
<p>MS-13 told Pablo he was next. </p>
<p>The family’s funds were just enough to get Pablo out of Honduras. Maybe, they hoped, if he was gone the gang would leave the family alone. Once in the States, he could send money home. </p>
<p>The plan didn’t work. Four gang members forced Sofia into a car, drove her to the countryside, beat her and raped her repeatedly. “This is what will happen to your daughter,” they shouted at her over and over again, “if you don’t pay us what your husband owes.”</p>
<h2>Ethics and survival</h2>
<p>The images and stories of Central Americans caged at the border awaiting processing expose how the U.S. immigration system was never designed to deal with this many people fleeing these kinds of problems. </p>
<p>In the hopes of getting better treatment at the border, some migrants have resorted to pretending to be part of family units, or lying about their age. </p>
<p>This kind of “gaming the system” may be ethically questionable, but viewed from the perspective of survival, it makes perfect sense. </p>
<p>Such strategies speak most of all of collective desperation, begging a question posed by many of the Central American migrants I have met over the years: “If you were me, what would you do?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony W. Fontes has received research funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.</span></em></p>Thousands of Central American migrants are trying to cross the U.S. southern border. One scholar followed their paths to find out why they make the dangerous, sometimes deadly, journey.Anthony W. Fontes, Assistant Professor of Human Security, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1126862019-03-13T22:51:38Z2019-03-13T22:51:38ZMexico’s frontera sur: Life carries on in this place of permanent mobility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262956/original/file-20190308-155507-1xkcpz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Central American migrants crossing Suchiate River on makeshift boats. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Iván Francisco Porraz)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The day we arrive in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, the southern Mexican state that borders Guatemala, all is quiet. A violent confrontation had occurred just the day before: Central American migrants, mostly from Honduras, had thrown rocks at Mexican migration officials who attempted to stop their entry into Mexico over the international bridge. Many of the migrants hope their final destination will be a better life in the United States.</p>
<p>As we approach the town, we chance upon a small caravan of about 30 men, women and children walking along the road in the scorching sun. They are in rough shape and we decide not to take photos today. We don’t want to compromise their privacy. Dignity is one of the few things these people have left. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263690/original/file-20190313-123548-gk7eys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left is a map of the area detailed and right is the border crossing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google maps</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/10/world/americas/crossing-us-mexico-border.html">“illegal” migrants receives constant media coverage</a>. However, outsiders to the procession know little about the <em>frontera sur</em> — the 871-kilometre stretch of land between southern Mexico and Guatemala that is the gateway to North America. </p>
<p>We are two researchers: one in human rights from Canada and the other in social anthropology from Mexico. We visited the border region last month to observe daily life and to gather information with the hope that these details will help us to change the media narrative that often dehumanizes Central American migrants. </p>
<p>Since October 2018, <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/there-are-now-12000-migrants-in-mexico/">thousands of people have entered Mexico in several “caravans.”</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/americas/migrant-caravan-honduras-mexico.html">Most of them cross the Suchiate River</a> that cuts through Tecun Uman, Guatemala and Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico and continue their journey through Mexican territory. </p>
<p>The small caravan we witness is accompanied by Mexican federal police and several government migration vans. We are unsure if the vans are empty or full of detained people. We later learn that the federal police are leading the caravan away from the larger city of Tapachula (near Cuidad Hidalgo) and out of the state of Chiapas. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263456/original/file-20190312-86699-64uv8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Central American migrants wait to be processed by Mexican migration officials on the international bridge connecting Mexico and Guatemala.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iván Francisco Porraz</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The migrants will find Good Samaritans who will give them water, tortillas and diapers along their journey. However, patience is wearing thin toward their burgeoning presence in the centre of Tapachula. </p>
<p>The migrants are nameless people: “nobodies” with little choice but to continue the journey northward to Mexico City and ultimately to the U.S. border. They travel in groups because there is safety in numbers. The region is notorious for criminal gangs and human trafficking.</p>
<p>As migrant caravans become commonplace, life carries on along the Suchiate River. It has become a place of permanent mobility. </p>
<h2>What will happen when you go home?</h2>
<p>The Honduran exodus is the result of a fateful combination of unemployment, environmental degradation and generalized violence. </p>
<p>The Honduran government does little to improve the deeply embedded poverty and inequality that foster these conditions. A long history of sustained <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">U.S. intervention in the region has aggravated the situation and accelerated the human exodus.</a>.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/233150241700500402">“mixed migration” phenomenon</a> does not easily fit into the narrow definitions of the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a>. The migrants have international protection needs, but they are also <a href="https://www.acnur.org/5c241d274.pdf">seeking to improve their economic situation. Many hope they will reunite with family members in the U.S.</a> Nevertheless, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asks the question: “What will happen to you if you go home?” The vast majority respond that their lives are in grave danger. </p>
<h2>Humanitarian visas</h2>
<p>Day-to-day survival is the goal of this vulnerable population. </p>
<p>Applying for refugee status in Mexico is the best option for survival in the long term. However, <a href="https://cis.org/Luna/Mexicos-Refugee-Law.">the country’s refugee determination process is backlogged and unpredictable.</a> </p>
<p>A humanitarian visa allowing the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/protection-and-reintegration-mexico-reforms-migration-agenda">migrants to live and work in Mexico for one year is fast but temporary.</a> For desperate people, one year seems like a lifetime. In their situation, they can’t think ahead. </p>
<p>It seems that the Mexican government’s response to the caravans has been reactive rather than pro-active. The result is semi-controlled chaos.</p>
<p>One day the Hondurans enter Mexican territory legally with humanitarian visas and the next day they are denied visas and barred entry. Those who take their chances by swimming across the river are detained and deported. </p>
<h2>Life goes on</h2>
<p>Migration from Central America is a historical and socio-economic reality. But the constant movement of border residents back and forth to buy and sell goods also adds to the frenetic environment of the <em>frontera sur</em>. </p>
<p>At the shore of the shallow river, we watch merchandise crossing from Guatemala to Mexico on small wooden planks balanced on rubber tire tubes. Men in waist-deep water pull the makeshift boats and guide them with long poles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263454/original/file-20190312-86703-3xwbs2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young woman prepares Salvadoran pupusas on the strip of land between Mexico and Guatemala.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stacey Wilson-Forsberg</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shipments of mangoes, corn flour and feminine hygiene products in purple boxes are neatly piled along the shore in an effort to avoid paying customs duties. </p>
<p>At the quieter forested border crossing of Talisman, Chiapas, a long queue of smashed cars awaits entry. The cars are towed over 3,000 kilometres from the U.S. border city of El Paso to Chiapas. They are repaired in Guatemala and sold throughout Central America. </p>
<p>On the strip of land between Mexico and Guatemala is an improvised <em>pupusa</em> eatery. We ask the young woman preparing our lunch whether the <em>pupusas</em> are Honduran or Salvadoran — an ongoing debate around here. “Salvadoran,” she replies. The young woman identifies as Salvadoran, although she was born in Mexico and has never actually been to El Salvador, a mere 12-hour drive from the border. </p>
<p>People will continue to flee Honduras and the other Central American countries. High numbers will walk over Mexico’s southern border in large and small caravans. They will stop to rest and attempt to make money by selling fruit and candy or begging, and then they will continue their journey northward. </p>
<p>As they pass through, life goes on in the hot, humid and hilly stretches of land where tumultuous Central America and the poorest part of Mexico meet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors would like to thank the UNHCR Tapachula Field Office for providing context for this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iván Francisco Porraz Gómez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As migrant caravans become commonplace, life goes on along the frontera sur where tumultuous Central America and the poorest part of Mexico meet.Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, Associate Professor Human Rights & Human Diversity, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityIván Francisco Porraz Gómez, Profesor-Investigador, ECOSURLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1095472019-01-08T18:49:29Z2019-01-08T18:49:29ZIs there a crisis at the US-Mexico border? 6 essential reads<p>For three years, first as a presidential candidate, then as president of the United States, Donald Trump has insisted that the country must stem immigration by building a wall along its southern border – an expensive gambit that <a href="https://www-washingtonpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/27/what-do-americans-think-about-the-wall-the-answers-may-surprise-you-only-if-you-read-drudge/?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAFYAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fposteverything%2Fwp%2F2018%2F06%2F27%2Fwhat-do-americans-think-about-the-wall-the-answers-may-surprise-you-only-if-you-read-drudge%2F">few Americans support</a> and that Democratic lawmakers virulently oppose. </p>
<p>Now, he’s even shut down the federal government over this unmet campaign promise. In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/politics/trump-speech.html">Jan. 8 televised address</a>, Trump insisted that it would stay closed until Congress agreed to a $5.7 billion steel barrier to “protect our country.” </p>
<p>But is there a crisis at the southern border?</p>
<p>Unlawful border crossings have actually declined since 2014, when 569,236 people — most of them Central American — were detained at the southern border, <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration">according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection</a>. Last year, 521,090 migrants were caught trying to enter the country unlawfully. </p>
<p>Here, immigration experts explain who’s trying to get into the United States, what they want, and why immigration — even undocumented immigration — actually benefits the country.</p>
<h2>1. Most Central American migrants are asylum-seekers</h2>
<p>Central American migration is heavily driven by fear, according to researcher <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-face-of-latin-american-migration-is-rapidly-changing-us-policy-isnt-keeping-up-74959">Jonathan Hiskey</a> of Vanderbilt University. </p>
<p>“An increasing number of individuals are now arriving at the U.S. southwest border because of crime, violence and insecurity in Central America,” he writes.</p>
<p>With 60 murders per 100,000 people in 2017, El Salvador was the deadliest place in the world that was not at war. Almost 4,000 people were killed there in 2017. That year New York City, which has a much larger population, saw 292 killings.</p>
<p>Honduras’ murder rate has plummeted since 2014, but with 42.8 murders per 100,000 people in 2017, it is still one of the world’s most dangerous places.</p>
<p>People who’ve been victims of crime multiple times are most likely to emigrate, Hiskey says. Rather than trying to sneak across the U.S. border, refugees from violence typically surrender at the border and ask for asylum. </p>
<h2>2. Central American teens face particular risk</h2>
<p>While overall crime and violence have declined across Central America in recent years, one population is in more danger.</p>
<p>“Youth homicides in the region are now over 20 per 100,000 – that’s four times the global average,” says immigration researcher <a href="https://theconversation.com/central-american-kids-come-to-the-us-fleeing-record-high-youth-murder-rates-at-home-99132">Julio Ernesto Acuna Garcia</a>. “Homicide rates among people aged 19 or younger have been steadily rising since 2008,” largely due to gang violence. </p>
<p>Those stunning statistics explain why so many children and families keep arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, despite harsh deterrance.</p>
<h2>3. Most migrants are turned away</h2>
<p>The majority of asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border today won’t be allowed to stay.</p>
<p>Central Americans fleeing gang violence are <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-caravan-members-have-right-to-claim-asylum-heres-why-getting-it-will-be-hard-101005">rarely granted asylum</a>, says Abigail Stepnitz, of the University of California, Berkeley. </p>
<p>Asylum-seekers must demonstrate persecution based on race, nationality, religion, political opinion or social group. Central Americans typically “struggle to fit their experiences into the boxes created by the law,” says Stepnitz.</p>
<p>More than 75 percent of asylum claims filed by Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans are denied.</p>
<h2>4. The border is not a national security threat</h2>
<p>Trump tends to ignore the fact that most Central American migrants are refugees from violence.</p>
<p>Instead, administration officials falsely claim that immigrants are criminals, or that Middle Eastern terrorists are infiltrating the country’s southern border. In doing so, they create the impression that the border is a national security threat.</p>
<p>This strategy is called the “politics of insecurity,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-populism-preys-upon-collective-anxieties-107559">writes University of Saskatchewan policy researcher Daniel Béland</a>, and it’s a favorite of populists worldwide. </p>
<p>In “creating or exacerbating threats they seek to protect ordinary people against,” leaders can fabricate a sense of urgency that justifies extreme measures, Béland says.</p>
<p>Governments often “downplay, inflate, or even fabricate perceived threats to increase their electoral and political support.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252915/original/file-20190108-32154-xxbr69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Marines look on during work to fortify the border structure that separates Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego, California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Immigration-Asylum-Seekers/9fa54f15c26444058f5e55d01291ece1/4/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Immigrants don’t cause crime</h2>
<p>The Salvadoran street gang MS-13, in particular, has played a starring role in many Trump threats, as it did in his recent televised address. </p>
<p>Anthony Fontes, a professor at the American University School of International Service, studies MS-13. He says conservative politicians often <a href="https://theconversation.com/republican-ads-feature-ms-13-hoping-fear-will-motivate-voters-105474">leverage the brutal image of this Salvadoran street gang</a> to serve their political agendas.</p>
<p>“Because its membership is primarily Latino, MS-13 helps Republicans make a crucial link between immigration and violence in voters’ minds,” says Fontes.</p>
<p>That association is factually unfounded.</p>
<p>“Numerous studies show that immigrants actually commit crime at a lower rate than native-born Americans,” Fontes says. “Large cities with substantial immigrant populations have lower crime rates, on average, than those with minimal immigrant populations.”</p>
<h2>6. Immigration is good for the economy</h2>
<p>Immigrants, even those who enter the country unlawfully, often benefit the American economy, too.</p>
<p>An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. have become <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-care-about-undocumented-immigrants-for-one-thing-theyve-become-vital-to-key-sectors-of-the-us-economy-98790">vital to key U.S. industries</a>, says Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Cornell Farmworker Program at Cornell University.</p>
<p>Undocumented immigrants make up more than half of the nation’s farmworkers and 15 percent of construction laborers.</p>
<p>The rise in border enforcement and immigration raids under the Trump administration has particularly hurt farmers, Dudley says.</p>
<p>“One New York apple grower told us that due to labor shortages and dwindling prices … he plans to let his 100-year-old orchard go, because any investments in production would result in significant economic loss.”</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Immigration experts explain who’s really trying to cross the US-Mexico border, what they want — and why immigration, even undocumented immigration, actually benefits the country.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083882018-12-18T11:50:07Z2018-12-18T11:50:07ZWho is responsible for migrants?<p>President Donald Trump tends to portray migrants as a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057614564639019009">foreign problem</a> that has suddenly – and unfairly – been “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1066685057648214018">dumped</a>” at America’s doorstep. </p>
<p>Migration “is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S.,” he wrote on Nov. 25 about a <a href="https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-migrants-disappear-in-mexico-as-central-american-caravan-pushes-northward-106287">caravan of mostly Honduran women, children and young men</a> seeking asylum in the United States.</p>
<p>He is not alone. The flow of refugees and asylum-seekers from poor countries to the United States border is often attributed, incorrectly, to domestic unrest in a far-off nation. Some Americans blame far-off governments for not being “willing to take care of their own country’s problems,” as one New York Times reader commenting on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10151766810709999?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBSJU4RRKLXulH--w79yozbAE9nWruF4rneIkDZ1q9Nir0W591YqQUuiCVHpOF9_pb6ypQABQn0j78V7Ej-eDF2-NVU-jxXRcFbZNokGungHShSvk36RhvRD2bmKiiabGhAj_4PWq-OPIARooX7qWGnRXINdoRFLxtHvgi9CvOAvjptJGrUob2ylKX1laYt0FLq_lx9uhaW9N7quZ_j5DF6fb8yR_F4PHlVOfNhvwEbghZubJ6j6RPWLjTwzpic0wKajtHIt1mP8MKSJ2Amwlk8D1fogeExbFwmHm9U1RgKveOzHxiWvZhv4KWsPmL_X7uEL-XY6lKrjUU&__tn__=-R">the migrant caravan</a> put it recently.</p>
<p>This one-sided view of migration ignores the global forces that bind our world together, my <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319459516">research on immigration policy</a> shows. </p>
<p>The extreme violence, environmental disasters and grinding poverty that drive people from places like <a href="https://theconversation.com/central-american-kids-come-to-the-us-fleeing-record-high-youth-murder-rates-at-home-99132">Guatemala</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">Honduras</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/kabul-is-still-not-safe-but-the-eu-is-deporting-people-there-anyway-66933">Afghanistan</a> are largely the result of global phenomena like colonialism, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-displace-millions-in-coming-decades-nations-should-prepare-now-to-help-them-89274">climate change</a> and trade. </p>
<p>Seen through an international lens, both migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries share responsibility for the people displaced by globalization.</p>
<h2>Colonialism and its consequences</h2>
<p>It’s no coincidence that immigration routes today follow the same path European colonizers did – but in reverse. </p>
<p>France invaded Algeria in 1830 and kept it as a colony until 1962. Today, the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/15/france-may-have-apologied-atrocities-algeria-war-still-casts/">largest immigrant group in France</a> is Algerians. </p>
<p>And while Britain today may wish to close its borders, in 1948 it invited <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item107671.html">citizens of former British colonies into the country</a> to help the United Kingdom rebuild after World War II. Indians and Pakistanis are now the <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-an-overview/">second- and third-largest immigrant groups in the United Kingdom</a>, after Polish people.</p>
<p>The Central Americans looking to the United States for refuge are following a similar historical pattern.</p>
<p>Technically, the United States was never an empire. But its government <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Forced+Migration+and+Global+Politics-p-9781405180313">consistently intervened in Latin American domestic affairs</a> during the late 20th century, installing and even removing leaders across the region. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, hoping to beat back Communism, the U.S. funded and armed authoritarian regimes in Central America as they battled leftist guerrillas. These decadeslong civil wars killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands. </p>
<p>War also killed the region’s economy. Average income in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua was actually <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KN?locations=GT-SV-HN-NI">lower in 1990 than it had been in 1980</a>. </p>
<p>Regional instability caused mass migration to the United States. Between 1981 and 1990 <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-americans-and-asylum-policy-reagan-era">almost 1 million Salvadorans and Guatemalans entered the United States</a> clandestinely.</p>
<h2>Trade, poverty and cheap immigrant labor</h2>
<p>Economic links between richer and poorer countries have also spurred mass migration.</p>
<p>More international trade in recent decades has brought jobs and improved living standards in some countries – among them Chile, China and South Korea – preventing migration by creating the economic conditions that allow people to stay put.</p>
<p>Strategic agricultural aid to developing countries, too, has reduced emigration from some rural countries, according to a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X1830189X">recent study in the journal World Development</a>, which analyzed data from 103 countries that received aid from 1995 to 2010.</p>
<p>But international commerce has also unleashed migration elsewhere.</p>
<p>Mexican immigration to the U.S. surged after the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994. The deal <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-trumps-nafta-renegotiations-could-help-mexican-workers-86018">increased Mexico’s manufacturing sector substantially</a> – but it hurt farmers by <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1473">opening Mexican markets to subsidized U.S. agricultural products</a>. </p>
<p>Unable to compete with these cheap imports, hundreds of thousands of Mexican farmers lost their jobs. By 2006, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-nafta-good-for-mexicos-farmers/">an estimated 2 million peasants had been pushed out of rural areas</a> in Mexico. Many of these displaced farmers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25097891?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">migrated to the U.S.</a>, where they found jobs in the construction, agricultural and restaurant sectors. </p>
<p>Today, Hispanics make up around a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/hispanics-and-latinos-in-industries-and-occupations.htm">quarter of workers in those industries</a>. The same low-wage immigrant labor helps to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1821348.pdf?casa_token=0Jw76-N_gF4AAAAA:yBaCXe1c6P-Y0Kj542LO6saCRXgm0_xemwSxYA5jRoXFSP_ZbsqKes8KYD3PkJ__gabQdEWi2FZDctuUcTT-EyrW2agF67URa8X1eNuGXgpLICgswfE">keep manufacturing afloat in the U.S.</a> despite the otherwise high costs of doing business.</p>
<p>Trump <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-america-first-strategy-for-nafta-talks-wont-benefit-us-workers-81597">insists</a> only that cheap imports from developing countries threatens U.S. industry. The realities of migration are more complex and nuanced than that.</p>
<h2>Climate refugees</h2>
<p>Climate change is another global problem <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629807000601">contributing to the migration crisis</a>.</p>
<p>Global warming-related problems like rising sea levels and extreme weather have their origins in the Industrial Revolution in Europe 150 years ago. But their impacts are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-we-compensate-poor-countries-for-loss-and-damage-from-climate-change-55612">hitting poor countries first and hardest</a>. </p>
<p>Residents of <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Climate_Change_and_Migration.html?id=yV-9cQAACAAJ">small Pacific islands such as Kiribati and Tuvalu</a> must abandon their homes because coastal erosion is pushing people inland, creating conflicts over the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/14/our-country-will-vanish-pacific-islanders-bring-desperate-message-to-australia">scarce remaining dry land</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178131/original/file-20170713-4303-1njf1fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tuvalu is among the low-lying island nations facing imminent risk of extinction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ist4u/5685924064/in/photolist-9ErR8w-pE3Szo-68kUrE-kgPSjz-xgEFmb-qXCE4Z-rsaQxz-xmgB85-5cDz8n-bqnBxQ-xvYBb3-g89ipe-apQZxw-bpLHH9-sTu29-pL9VAu-qSTY7C-kicYvd-bCFBon-kgKwFp-o2VGv2-9ErPDA-bDhvg4-zS3Nh-9EoUHa-68dn4i-7ALLaU-6aF1Tt-bpLGj3-aoT3jY-bDhqfp-DCkf8-zRieM-kiaMac-bqnyys-zRieH-DCkeV-bqnBQJ-D9fwi-kgN1xV-9ErQoE-pNfhea-7Hwqq8-LECQR5-6oiK9Q-kgMCpK-xCZDYZ-9ErQEE-9EoVLr-bDhsK2">Tomoaki INABA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even Central American migration is linked in part to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/migrant-caravan-causes-climate-change-central-america">climate change</a>. Changes in temperature and rainfall across the region have damaged the coffee and maize crops over the past decade. Some farmers who’ve lost their rural livelihood joined the caravan earlier this year.</p>
<p>And though <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?locations=XD-XM-US-CN&view=chart">China</a> has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, people in rich countries still use a disproportionate share of global resources. Per capita carbon emissions in high-income countries is about <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?locations=XD-XM-US-CN&view=chart">30 times higher than in low-income countries</a> because people in the richer countries have bigger and more air-conditioned homes, eat more meat and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916517710685">drive and fly more</a>. </p>
<p>Such statistics raise serious doubt about who, exactly, should take responsibility for modern climate refugees.</p>
<h2>Stopping migration before it starts</h2>
<p>Rich countries are not to blame for every problem that drives migration from poor countries. </p>
<p>Corrupt, predatory and violent leaders <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">in Central America</a>, Syria, Pakistan and many other places are also accountable for creating hazardous conditions in their countries. </p>
<p>And Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, which destroyed the nation’s capital and <a href="https://www.fmreview.org/fragilestates/thomaz">sent thousands fleeing for their lives</a>, had nothing to do with climate change.</p>
<p>Still, too much political rhetoric out of Washington offers a simplistic, one-sided view of migration. A more balanced debate might help policymakers take measures that might actually address the problem, rather than just casting blame on poor countries and closing borders. </p>
<p>Other countries increasingly agree. On Dec. 10, 164 nations signed the <a href="http://undocs.org/en/A/CONF.231/3">Global Compact for Migration</a>, the world’s first-ever comprehensive international agreement. It assigns shared responsibility for hosting migrants in ensuring their human rights are respected and addressing the root causes of displacement. </p>
<p>The United States was not one of them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felipe A. Filomeno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donald Trump portrays migrants as a foreign problem ‘dumped’ on America’s doorstep. That view ignores the global forces that bind nations together, including trade, climate change and colonization.Felipe A. Filomeno, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1062872018-11-15T17:18:02Z2018-11-15T17:18:02ZDozens of migrants disappear in Mexico as Central American caravan pushes northward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245607/original/file-20181114-194519-birzhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrants travel in groups through Mexico for safety reasons. But Mexico is still one of the world's most dangerous countries.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/5b4b09e175534118802b8868f4e98028/30/0">AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Hondurans who banded together last month to travel northward to the United States, fleeing <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2018/february/honduras-gang-violence-migration-corruption-boys/">gangs</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-honduras-poverty-and-gangs-help-drive-migration/2018/10/23/d97e0d94-d712-11e8-8384-bcc5492fef49_story.html">poverty</a>, were joined by other Central Americans hoping to <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-travel-in-groups-for-a-simple-reason-safety-105621">find safety</a> in numbers on this perilous journey. </p>
<p>But group travel couldn’t save everyone. </p>
<p>Earlier this month, two trucks from the caravan <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/migrant-caravan-kidnap-mexico-trump-midterm-elections-oaxaca-organised-crime-a8619731.html">disappeared</a> in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. One person who escaped <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/2018/11/08/de-los-100-migrantes-entregados-al-crimen-organizado-65-son-ninos-mas-sobre-el-secuestro-de-la-caravana_a_23584150/">told officials</a> that about “65 children and seven women were sold” by the driver to a <a href="https://www.sinembargo.mx/05-11-2018/3493947">group of armed men</a>.</p>
<p>Mexican authorities are searching for the migrants, but history shows that people missing for more than 24 hours are <a href="https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/10/mexico-desaparecidos-sistema-incompleto-recursos-suficientes/">rarely found</a> in Mexico – alive or at all. </p>
<h2>Mexico’s ambiguous welcome</h2>
<p>An average of 12 people <a href="http://www.zocalo.com.mx/new_site/articulo/reportan-cada-dia-12-desaparecidos-en-mexico">disappear each day</a> in Mexico. Most are victims of a raging three-way war among the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/2017/12/12/ley-de-seguridad-interior-es-impugnable-permite-al-ejercito-autogobernarse-e-implica-un-estado-de-excepcion-de-facto-cide_a_23304769/">Mexican armed forces</a>, organized crime and drug cartels. </p>
<p>The military crackdown on criminal activity has actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574">escalated violence</a> in Mexico since operations began in 2006, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574">my research</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/es_latam/article/7x3bvb/ejercito-marina-policias-abrumadoramente-letales-mexico">other security studies</a> show.</p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.proceso.com.mx/552216/en-2018-nuevo-record-de-asesinatos">22,000</a> people were murdered in Mexico in the first eight months of this year, a dismal record in one of the world’s deadliest places.</p>
<p>Central Americans fleeing similarly rampant violence back home confront those risks and others on their journey to the United States. <a href="http://www.msf.mx/sites/mexico/files/msf_fah_e.pdf">Doctors Without Borders</a> found that over two-thirds of migrants surveyed in Mexico in 2014 experienced violence en route. One-third of women had been sexually abused.</p>
<p>Mexico’s security crisis may explain why so few caravan members want to stay there. </p>
<p>In response to President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1052885781675687936?lang=en">demands</a> that Mexico “stop this onslaught,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto <a href="https://twitter.com/EPN/status/1055915565670293504">announced</a> that migrants who applied for asylum at Mexico’s southern border would be given shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-caravan/central-american-caravan-moves-on-in-spite-of-mexico-jobs-offer-idUSKCN1N10Q8">1,700</a> of the estimated 5,000 caravan members took him up on the offer.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/09/migrant-caravan-mexico-response-rich-poor-supplies-complaints">everyday Mexicans</a> are greeting the migrants as they pass through their towns, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-09/migrant-caravan-honduras-mexico-trump/10473780">donating</a> food, clothing, lodging and transport. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/politica/Caravana-migrante-mayor-respaldo-entre-comunidades-rurales-20181105-0061.html">A recent poll</a> shows that 51 percent of Mexicans support the caravan. Thirty-three percent of respondents, many of them affluent members of Mexico’s urban <a href="https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/11/rechazo-a-centroamericanos-es-racismo-investigadores/">middle class</a>, want the migrants to go back to Central America. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245603/original/file-20181114-172710-158fmaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two trucks carrying an estimated 80 migrants went missing in Mexico in early November.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/257c99aefc834c6b9e7062570824d683/3/0">AP Photo/Marco Ugarte</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Asylum overload</h2>
<p>Mexican <a href="https://t.co/fm41zAFPfh">law</a>, which allows eligible asylum seekers to both request and be granted asylum, exceeds <a href="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">international standards on the rights of migrants</a>.</p>
<p>But reality in Mexico often falls short of the law. </p>
<p>The Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission is supposed to process <a href="http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/regley/Reg_LRPC.pdf">asylum applications</a> in 45 days. But its offices in Mexico City were damaged by last year’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexico-citys-potent-2017-earthquake-was-a-rare-bending-quake-and-it-could-happen-again-92994">earthquake</a>, forcing the already <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/30/mexico-cant-handle-your-tired-poor-and-huddled-masses/">overstretched and underfunded</a> agency to <a href="http://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5502876&fecha=30/10/2017">suspend</a> processing of open asylum claims for months. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, new applications for asylum in Mexico continued to pour in – a record <a href="https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/290340/ESTADISTICAS_2013_A_4TO_TRIMESTRE_2017.pdf">14,596</a> were filed last year. The processing <a href="https://www.upi.com/Mexico-facing-two-year-backlog-as-asylum-requests-soar/2031535567041/">backlog</a> is now two years. </p>
<p>During that period of legal limbo, asylum seekers cannot work, attend school or fully access Mexico’s public health system. President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1, <a href="https://www.proceso.com.mx/555830/amlo-anuncia-plan-de-visas-de-trabajo-a-migrantes-centroamericanos">says he will offer</a> Central American migrants temporary working visas while their claims are processed.</p>
<p>Anti-caravan posts on social media accuse migrants of <a href="https://twitter.com/DiegoPinon_/status/1054099351071612929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1054099351071612929&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.culturacolectiva.com%2Fmexico%2Fmexico-es-racista-una-realidad-que-expuso-la-caravana-migrante%2F">taking Mexican jobs</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SummertimesCold/status/1053352285588410368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1053352285588410368&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.culturacolectiva.com%2Fmexico%2Fmexico-es-racista-una-realidad-que-expuso-la-caravana-migrante%2F">violating Mexico’s sovereignty</a>, using nativist language <a href="https://news.culturacolectiva.com/mexico/mexico-es-racista-una-realidad-que-expuso-la-caravana-migrante/">similar to that seen in the United States</a>.</p>
<p>Mexico City, which in 2017 declared itself to be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexico-seeks-to-become-country-of-refuge-as-us-cracks-down-on-migrants-97668">sanctuary city</a>, nonetheless put thousands of caravan members up in a stadium staffed by medical teams and humanitarian groups.</p>
<h2>Militarizing the US-Mexico border</h2>
<p>The first Central Americans from the caravan are now <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46207034">arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border</a>, where they face a far less warm reception.</p>
<p>Calling the caravan an “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056919064906469376">invasion</a>,” President Trump has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/31/trump-migrant-caravan-immigration-us-troops-mexico">ordered the deployment of over 5,000 troops</a> to the border.</p>
<p>U.S. law <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1385">prohibits</a> the use of the armed forces to enforce domestic laws without specific congressional authorization. That means the troops can only support border agents in deterring migrants.</p>
<p>But Trump’s decision still has symbolic power. This is the first time in over a century that military troops have been summoned to defend the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>The last deployment occurred during the Mexican Revolution. </p>
<p>On March 9, 1916, a small band of revolutionaries led by Francisco “Pancho” Villa <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1865904?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">invaded</a> Columbus, New Mexico. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245608/original/file-20181114-194519-hyu03a.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to the border – and into Mexican territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexican-revolution/punitive-expedition-2.gif">United States Air Force</a></span>
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<p>Officially, the group assaulted the border city in retaliation for then-President Woodrow Wilson’s support of Venustiano Carranza, Villa’s political rival. Villa also had a personal vendetta against Sam Ravel, a local man who had swindled money from him.</p>
<p>President Wilson responded by summoning General John J. Pershing, who assembled a force of 6,000 U.S. troops to <a href="https://www.biography.com/video/pancho-villa-wanted-dead-or-alive-30107203953">chase</a> Villa deep inside Mexico’s northern territory. Pershing’s “punitive expedition” returned in early 1917 after failing to capture the revolutionary leader.</p>
<h2>No relief at the border</h2>
<p>Central Americans who reach the militarized United States border can still <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-1687.html#0-0-0-192">apply for asylum</a> there, despite President Trump’s recent executive order <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/us/politics/trump-asylum-seekers-executive-order.html">limiting</a> where they may do so. But they face stiff odds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245609/original/file-20181114-194497-1m73dgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Central American caravan includes many women asylum seekers hoping to give their children a safer life in the United States.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/093a40b2fc8e4e70b28bbfbc0a5a55c3/4/0">AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd</a></span>
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<p>After an evaluation process that can take months or <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-caravan-members-have-right-to-claim-asylum-heres-why-getting-it-will-be-hard-101005">years</a>, the majority of Central American asylum claims filed in the United States – 75 percent – are <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-caravan-members-have-right-to-claim-asylum-heres-why-getting-it-will-be-hard-101005">denied</a>. Caravan members rejected will be sent back to the same perilous place they fled last month.</p>
<p>With 60 percent of its population <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview">living in poverty</a>, Honduras is the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview">poorest country in Latin America</a>. It also has the world’s second-highest homicide rate – <a href="https://iudpas.unah.edu.hn/observatorio-de-la-violencia/boletines-del-observatorio-2/boletines-nacionales/">43.6 murders per 100,000 people</a> – trailing only El Salvador.</p>
<p>The U.S. contributed to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">instability that created these hardships</a>.</p>
<p>Honduras has been in turmoil since 2009, when the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8124154.stm">military</a> overthrew leftist President Manuel Zelaya. Rather than join the United Nations and European Union in demanding Zelaya’s reinstatement, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/transcript-hillary-clinton-meets-news-editorial-board-article-1.2596292">called for new elections</a>, effectively endorsing a coup. </p>
<p>The country entered a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup">prolonged political crisis</a>. Honduras’s November 2017 presidential election was <a href="https://theconversation.com/hondurass-election-crisis-is-likely-to-end-in-violence-88625">contested</a>, with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/world/americas/us-honduras-president-hernandez.html">U.S.-backed</a> President Juan Orlando Hernández accused of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote">rigging the vote</a>. Seventeen opposition protesters were killed in the unrest that followed.</p>
<p>The Central American caravan that started in Honduras seeks in the U.S. a life free of such violence. Its steady progress toward the border shows that even kidnappings, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wall-and-the-beast-trumps-triumph-from-the-mexican-side-of-the-border-68559">Trump’s threats</a> and soldiers cannot deter them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Gómez Romero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two trucks carrying migrants have gone missing in Veracruz, Mexico. A witness says that ‘65 children and seven women were sold’ to a band of armed men. Other caravan members have reached the border.Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1064432018-11-09T01:36:19Z2018-11-09T01:36:19ZOrigins and implications of the caravan of Honduran migrants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244234/original/file-20181107-74763-re883i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=172%2C335%2C5291%2C3301&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the migrant caravan, mostly Hondurans, cross a river that separates Guatemala and Mexico. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Esteban Biba </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Honduras is a wonderful place for a short visit, despite its reputation as a one of the most <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/honduras/10454018/Welcome-to-Honduras-the-most-dangerous-country-on-the-planet.html">dangerous places on the planet</a>. It is a small, beautiful country with an abundance of natural resources and a warm, welcoming culture. But it is a very hard place to live. </p>
<p>I first travelled there nearly 20 years ago to do volunteer work, meeting my Honduran husband in the process. I have visited multiple times since then, including living in Honduras for nearly a year while doing my PhD research. In September this year we visited for a month, spending time with family and friends, with discussions often revolving around politics, violence, and the difficulty of life in Honduras. </p>
<p>When news emerged two weeks after we left of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/03/caravan-migrants-crosses-river-guatemala-mexico-video-report">caravan of migrants</a> making their way across Guatemala and Mexico to the United States, I wasn’t surprised. Here are five reflections on the origins and implications of the caravan.</p>
<h2>Corruption as the operating system</h2>
<p>The place migrants are leaving is more important and relevant than the place they are going to. <a href="https://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/honduras/">Political corruption</a> and repression, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2018/february/honduras-gang-violence-migration-corruption-boys/">gangs</a>, drug cartels, land pressures and <a href="https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/climate-change-risk-profile-honduras">climate change</a> make life very difficult for most Hondurans, and impossible for some. Every Honduran has a story of violence. </p>
<p>Business owners sleep on the premises with a gun for protection, and drivers carry extra cash to pay corrupt police if pulled over. People avoid the centre of large cities wherever possible.</p>
<p>For those who have crossed paths with the gangs or drug cartels, dared to protest against the government, or tried to stand up for community rights in the face of mining corporations and dam builders, it is unimaginably difficult.</p>
<p>In 2017, the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2017/05/30/introduction-when-corruption-is-operating-system-case-of-honduras-pub-70000">Carnegie Endowment for International Peace</a> noted that in Honduras, “corruption is the operating system”, with “repression … carefully targeted for maximum psychological effect.” </p>
<p>When conditions are this bad, large-scale migration is inevitable, and many of these migrants are, in effect, refugees.</p>
<h2>US complicit in crisis</h2>
<p>Rather than being the victim of a migrant invasion, the United States is complicit. While local elites and politicians carry much of the blame for the chaos, decades of US meddling in the region has played a significant role.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">How US policy in Honduras set the stage for today's migration</a>
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<p>Poverty and inequality in Honduras has roots in the activities of American fruit companies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The current instability can be traced to the 2009 coup, the success of which was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/hillary-clinton-honduras-violence-manuel-zelaya-berta-caceres">partly attributable to US policy</a>. </p>
<p>More recent meddling includes the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote">endorsement of the fraudulent election</a> of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in 2017. </p>
<p>Since that election, there has been another major increase in political violence and repression. Through close ties with the Honduran business elites, US and transnational corporate interests are also linked to the <a href="http://bostonreview.net/editors-picks-world-us/lauren-carasik-blood-honduras-silence-united-states">repression of environmentalists and indigenous leaders</a>.</p>
<h2>Fewer migrants, but larger groups</h2>
<p>Although the caravan seems huge to us, this is just a drop in the bucket. More than 300,000 individuals were apprehended crossing the border illegally from Mexico into the USA in 2017. This was an historic low, down from 1.6 million in 2000. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/todays-us-mexico-border-crisis-in-6-charts-98922">Today’s US-Mexico 'border crisis' in 6 charts</a>
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<p>It is as also just a tiny fraction of the number of <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/international-migration-report-2017.html">undocumented migrants, refugees and asylum seekers worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>However, this caravan is part of a trend towards migrants and refugees travelling in larger groups. The journey through Mexico is dangerous. For example, rape is very common. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/files/UNICEF_Child_Alert_Central_America_2016_report_final(1).pdf">Amnesty International estimates</a> that 60% of women and girls who attempt the journey individually or in small groups are raped en route, and girls as young as 12 take measures to avoid pregnancy.</p>
<h2>Stories of hope</h2>
<p>Individual stories often get lost in the numbers and rhetoric. Focusing on the numbers lends credence to the rhetoric of invasion. It is important to remember that each member of the caravan is a person, with a story, a family, and dreams for the future. </p>
<p>The caravan includes many young men, but rather than being criminals to be feared, many are escaping the gangs, planning to work hard to send money home to families in Honduras. Indeed, the remittances that will be sent by migrants and refugees is potentially of <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Towards%20Human%20Resilience/Towards_SustainingMDGProgress_Ch4.pdf">far greater value to Honduran development</a> than any official aid, reducing poverty and increasing household spending across Honduras. </p>
<p>The key to reducing future migration may well be development stimulated by the <a href="https://www.lai.fu-berlin.de/disziplinen/oekonomie/mitarbeiter_innen/Sarah_Hirsch/R21_Migration_and_remittances_Honduras_0310_01-1.pdf">money these migrants will send home</a>.</p>
<h2>A call for compassion</h2>
<p>Finally, this caravan might seem far away and irrelevant to people in New Zealand and Australia. As my Honduran husband can attest, the number of Central Americans who make it here is tiny. However, we should take notice, because the global climate that has both led to the emergence of migrant caravans and the racist, anti-immigration rhetoric of US President Trump and others affects us too. </p>
<p>The rhetoric of Australian politicians and their refusal to show any compassion towards those who attempt to reach their shores should sound a warning. Generalising and stereotyping migrants and refugees is a dangerous step towards an even more insecure world, where those who already have the good life are protected, and those who don’t are stuck in a no-man’s land of poverty, violence and insecurity.</p>
<p>Compassion and recognition of the humanity of refugees and migrants is an important step towards building a more secure future and a peaceful world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon McLennan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Honduran migrants trudging north towards the US-Mexico border are fleeing violence and poverty that has its roots in activities of 10th-century American fruit companies.Sharon McLennan, Lecturer in International Development, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1057812018-10-30T21:57:02Z2018-10-30T21:57:02ZWhy does the migrant ‘caravan’ exist? And how did it come to be?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242879/original/file-20181030-76416-son4tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new group of Central American migrants walk past Mexican Federal Police after wading across the Suchiate River, that connects Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Oct. 29, 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Santiago Billy)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 19, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/20/americas/caravan-mexico-border/index.html">thousands of Central American migrants tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico</a>, seeking safety up north. News outlets broadcast the painful moans of people being crushed one against the other and the screams of children. We saw the desperate looks of mothers as authorities in Mexico tried to push back the crowd with batons and pepper spray. The following day they were permitted to cross over.</p>
<p>The caravan of 7,000, mostly from Guatemala and Honduras, is heading for the United States.</p>
<p>Once news of the caravan was presented to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-caravan/trump-threatens-to-send-military-shut-border-as-migrants-head-for-mexico-idUSKCN1MS1TS">U.S. President Donald Trump</a>, he said the flow of people contained “dangerous criminals,” and he pressured the Mexican government to stop the “invasion.” </p>
<p>Trump also threatened to cut humanitarian aid to Central American countries. He also announced he was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/politics/pentagon-border-troops-migrants/index.html">sending more than 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border</a>. As the caravan began to receive more attention, people asked: “Why are these people coming to the U.S.?”</p>
<h2>Necessity obliges us to leave</h2>
<p>The answer is complex. “<a href="https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=central.american+migrant+caravan%3F&vid=1e4cf699bd50199d70a4f6c08e1276ea&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOVF.qw7RrG6Ts7jbncYHtYaSBA%26pid%3D15.1%26h%3D360%26w%3D480%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkCy4r3onLTA&tit=Central+Americans+in+caravan+cross+into+Mexico+from+Guatemala&c=0&h=360&w=480&sigr=11b7q8510&sigt=11t4vn2vr&sigi=12n1hg10r&ct=p&age=0&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=iphone&guccounter=1">Una necesidad nos obliga</a>,” a 20-year-old man told the <em>Washington Post</em>. Necessity obliges us to leave.</p>
<p>As a professor, sociologist and father whose own family once crossed the border of Mexico for a better life in the U.S., I reflected on this. Poverty and violence are the main factors driving the caravan. The proliferation of gangs, narcotics trafficking, corruption and impunity are all endemic problems in Honduras and Guatemala. </p>
<p>Honduras is one of the <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/9-questions-answers-central-american-migrant-caravan/">world’s deadliest places</a> that isn’t a war zone. Droughts and floods have also had devastating consequences on agricultural economies. These people are travelling in a caravan for their own protection, to avoid having to pay a smuggler and to minimize the risk of crime.</p>
<h2>A deadly history of U.S. involvement</h2>
<p>But the roots of their plight are connected to larger issues and hemispheric politics played out over decades. Rage and threats will not make the caravan go away, as noted in a recent <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/9-questions-answers-central-american-migrant-caravan/">report</a> by research and advocacy group, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).</p>
<p>Governments cannot prevent citizens from leaving their own countries.</p>
<p>Guatemala provides a great case for how U.S. involvement has contributed to political instability and economic inequality in Central America. The country of <a href="https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=bF3TW8CsFZCEtQWk866QBw&q=population+of+guatemala&oq=population+of+guatemala&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i22i30k1l7.2380.5597.0.5709.24.21.0.0.0.0.170.2119.8j11.19.0..2..0...1.1.64.psy-ab..5.19.2118.0..35i39k1j0i67k1j0i131k1j0i131i20i263k1j0i131i67k1j0i20i263k1j0i10k1.0.5xP5VHHEAms">17 million</a>, many of whom are of Indigenous descent, elected their second democratically chosen president in 1951. President <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacobo-Arbenz">Jacobo Arbenz</a> passed a series of populist policies that included land redistribution and expanding access to education for the neediest people in Guatemala. </p>
<p>This angered U.S.-owned companies like the United Fruit Company. In <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol44no5/html/v44i5a03p.htm">1954 the U.S. CIA orchestrated a coup</a> and installed a series of military dictators who enforced a crackdown against all government opposition. </p>
<p>This crackdown included dropping napalm on Indigenous villages thought to contain guerrilla fighters. Additionally, military soldiers were ordered to “<em>desaparecer</em>” or “disappear” anyone suspected of opposing the government. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07">200,000 people</a>, mostly Indigenous, were killed in the country. These issues continue to reverberate today as the political class colludes with and protects criminal groups.</p>
<p>Honduras also has a long history of U.S. involvement, both economic and military. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935">U.S. presence</a> began in the late 1890s, when U.S.-based banana companies first became active there. The U.S. military intervened in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=utC5YT7wFgAC&pg=PA293&lpg=PA293&dq=honduras+1911+military+U.S.&source=bl&ots=t7g2JEjo7k&sig=WrW5KsAFt1ecs50xKBlVzEfyjRQ&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=honduras%201911%20military%20U.S.&f=false">1907 and 1911</a> to protect U.S. interests and further cement the <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/19981023.htm">ruling class’ dependency on Washington</a>. </p>
<p>Honduras has undergone political turmoil since a 2009 military coup against populist president Manuel Zelaya. The U.S. froze aid but it was restored shortly thereafter. Similarly in the 2018 election, the results were contested and the country was once again plunged into a political crisis. At least 30 were killed, most of them opponents of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/world/americas/us-honduras-president-hernandez.html">U.S.-backed President Juan Orlando Hernandez</a>, who was accused of rigging the vote.</p>
<h2>Migrants deserve a fair chance</h2>
<p>The caravan of desperate and hungry migrants from Central America did not create itself. It was created by meddling governments and indifferent neighbours.</p>
<p>While about 1,600 migrants have made official asylum claims in Mexico, many are continuing their journey north and Mexican authorities have not tried to stop the caravan. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243044/original/file-20181030-76405-1h497mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guatemalan migrant Ernesto Cayax, 27, feeds his 25-day-old baby daughter Reychel, as he takes a break from walking with his wife Jahana Estrada, 23, and their three children, on the roadside outside Tapanatepec, Mexico, before dawn on Oct. 29, 2018. The family joined up seven days ago with a thousands-strong caravan of Central Americans trying to reach the U.S. border, roughly 1000 miles away.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a video message posted to social media <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/2nd-migrants-caravan-arrives-at-guatemala-border/">President Enrique Pena Nieto announced a plan called “<em>Estas en tu Casa</em>”</a> (You are at home). The government offered shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to the migrants on the condition they seek asylum with the National Immigration Institute and remain in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. </p>
<p>However, it is unsurprising that Central Americans do not trust their chances for a fair asylum process in Mexico, a country with a high homicide rate and a history of discrimination against migrants. Just a few days ago a photo was published on social media of a group of racist skinheads in Mexico City leading an anti-Central American caravan campaign.</p>
<p>We need to address the key factors that allowed this caravan to exist. We need to prevent powerful governments from meddling in the affairs of other nations. And we need to sanction those who do. These migrants deserve a fair hearing, a chance to ask for protection in the U.S. and a timely and fair resolution of their claims. And we need to stop state sponsored violence. </p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of an article originally published on Oct. 30, 2018. The earlier story identified President Jacobo Arbenz as the first democratically chosen president of Guatemala in 1951. Instead President Jacobo Arbenz is the second democratically chosen president of Guatemala.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Flores does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A migrant caravan of almost 7,000 people who left Guatemala and Honduras is heading north towards the United States. The reasons they are leaving are complex but involve a U.S.-backed violent history.Jerry Flores, Assistant Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004112018-08-06T15:01:53Z2018-08-06T15:01:53ZWhy the global survey on safety is deeply flawed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230208/original/file-20180801-136649-105dad8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A global survey claims South Africans don't trust their police.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been a rise in global statistical initiatives that measure and rank countries in terms of various aspects of the human condition. Some of the more prominent examples include the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index</a>, the World Governance <a href="http://info.worldbank.org/governance/WGI/#home">Indicators</a>, the Global Peace <a href="http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2018/06/Global-Peace-Index-2018-2.pdf">Index</a> and the Corruption Perceptions <a href="https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017">Index</a>. </p>
<p>Each ranks countries according to a series of indicators, or a composite indicator, and tracks their progress or decline over time. </p>
<p>One of the most recent global indicator projects is the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/reports/235310/gallup-global-law-order-report-2018.aspx">Gallup Law and Order Index</a>. It ranks 142 countries based on a perception survey relating to personal safety and policing, from a representative sample of 1000 people in each country. Knowing how secure, or insecure people feel is important because insecurity affects economic growth and undermines development. </p>
<p>According to the recently released 2018 <a href="https://news.gallup.com/reports/235310/gallup-global-law-order-report-2018.aspx">law and order index</a>, South Africa ranks high in the insecurity index – 137 out 142 countries. This means that South Africans would have expressed high levels of insecurity as well as fear that they were likely to, or had already, fallen victim to crime.</p>
<p>The ranking suggests that South Africans consider themselves to be more insecure, and having lower levels of confidence in the police, compared to people in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya and Mali. These are all unstable states affected by violent conflict and high levels of instability.</p>
<p>This is surprising given that South Africa is not in state of armed conflict and is relatively stable. The possible reason for such a questionable ranking is that the survey, like many global perception surveys, doesn’t adequately account for the extent to which people will provide unreliable information about sensitive issues. To improve accuracy, surveys like this should factor in differences in context. </p>
<h2>The rankings</h2>
<p>The rankings are based on an index score derived from responses to the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police force?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?</p></li>
<li><p>Within the last 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member?</p></li>
<li><p>Within the past 12 months, have you been assaulted or mugged?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It’s undeniable that South Africa has high levels of insecurity and interpersonal crime. And, there’s a significant trust deficit between citizens and the police. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0341/P03412016.pdf">StatsSA 2016/17 Victims of Crime Survey</a> showed that only 30% of South African’s reported feeling safe walking at night in their neighbourhoods. Only 57% of households reported that they were “satisfied” with the police in their communities. And the country has very high <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/c_thumbnail.php?id=322">levels of crime</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it seems odd that South Africa is ranked below countries like <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/yemen">Yemen</a>, which has been in the throes of an intense civil war for several years, the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/central-african-republic">Central African Republic</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/libya">Libya</a>, which have been acutely affected by insurgency, criminality and weak law and order institutions. </p>
<p>Ranking South Africa below the DRC, Mali and Libya is also questionable given that the security forces and militias in those countries have been widely regarded as predatory and highly abusive.</p>
<p>So what’s missing?</p>
<h2>Context</h2>
<p>Firstly, context is key. </p>
<p>A key shortcoming of using survey data about crime and insecurity to construct indices and rankings is that people won’t always reply to questions honestly and accurately.</p>
<p>In stable democracies respondents will often give precise and truthful responses as there is little or no fear of reprisals from the state. Conversely, in unstable countries that have repressive governments, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022343311405698">research</a> shows that citizens are less willing to provide accurate information about personal experiences of crime and policing. This is because they fear there may be negative repercussions for them and their families.</p>
<p>Secondly, as research method experts have argued, survey responses can also be influenced by a variety of societal norms, particularly those related to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01621459.1986.10478282">privacy and dignity</a>, in which sensitive matters aren’t easily discussed with strangers. </p>
<p>In South Africa, citizens are generally willing to talk openly about crime and to criticise the police. But, this isn’t the case in many other African and Latin American countries that were rated as being safer. These include DRC, Libya, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/honduras">Honduras</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/mexico">Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>This is not to say that constructing indices about crime victimisation and policing on a country basis is irrelevant. But the danger of indicators like this, and adopting a ranking approach without careful consideration of the context in which the data is gathered, is that it could lead to wrong perceptions about crime and policing. That may even reinforce the use of militarised policing strategies, which will further undermine <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Political-Policing-United-States-America/dp/0822321599">human security</a> over less aggressive and more integrated approaches to crime prevention. Examples of where this has happened include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/27/brazil-military-police-crime-rio-de-janeiro-favelas">Brazil</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/world/americas/mexico-military-drug-war.html">Mexico</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0021909614541086">South Africa</a>. </p>
<p>To improve the accuracy of indices like this, it would be advisable to develop a quantifiable weighting for the reliability of crime and insecurity survey data for each country, and then apply the weighting to the overall index score. For example, in countries with more authoritarian governments, respondents are likely to under report their levels of trust in the police and sense of personal insecurity.</p>
<p>Applying a reliability weighting would adjust the overall insecurity index score to better reflect people’s lived reality. Such a weighting can be developed by including additional questions in the survey, for example about how willing respondents are to talk to strangers about sensitive information, including views about their governments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Lamb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Law and Order Index says South Africans feel less secure than people in Yemen, the DRC and Libya, countries all affected by violent conflict.Guy Lamb, Director, Safety and Violence Initiaitive, University of Cape Town, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.