President
Donald Trump is lashing out at the Central American migrant caravan
of some 7,000 people making their way through Mexico and toward the
US border. On Monday, he claimed without evidence that terrorists and
members of the MS-13 gang had infiltrated the group.
Trump
has doubled down on his threat to cut aid to Honduras, El Salvador
and Guatemala, and called out Democrats over US border policy, in an
ongoing attempt to turn the caravan into a main issue in upcoming
midterm elections.
Democracy
Now! spoke with two Central American-born activists, Patricia
Montes of Centro Presente and Oscar Chacón of Alianza Americas.
As
Chacón pointed out:
US
foreign aid is not what most Americans like to think it is. Very
often, US foreign aid is sort of like a boomerang. You put money
nominally abroad, but what they have to do with the money is
essentially purchase either merchandise or services from the US. And
in the case of Central America, in specific, the last four or five
years, which indeed show an increase in the nominal amount of US
foreign aid, has been primarily earmarked for essentially security
and defense purposes. The average Honduran, the average Guatemalan do
not necessarily see, in a tangible manner, what those US aid means.
What is
true is that the people in government, and in this case in Honduras
with Juan Orlando Hernández, he has been able to build far more than
anybody else before him his armed forces, his police, which are used
as political tools to essentially shut up people who are criticizing
him.
So,
clearly, what we are seeing here is the end result of a series of
missteps that have been taken by the US government, not only the
support to an illegitimate election last November, but also, the coup
d’état that was justified and supported by the U.S. government
back in 2009. So, in many ways, what we are seeing is the logical
consequence of all these missteps that US foreign policy in the
region have actually been taking for many, many, many years.
Comments
Post a Comment