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| Extreme Poverty Mexico Central America |
Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Central American Presidents this week meeting with U.S. President
Barack Obama in Washington: Otto Perez Molina, Guatemala; Juan Orlando
Hernandez, Honduras; Salvador Sanchez Ceren, El Salvador
Press TV reporting under July 21, 2014 headline -- Denying
child refugees ignores shared history
A
|
couple of weeks ago
as a created crisis became headline-acute Democracy Now spoke with Professor
Dana Frank and focused particularly on one of the Central American countries
and its questionable leadership and collusion with U.S. leaders.
President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández who is meeting
with the U.S. president sailed into office earlier this year on the criminal
overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya. Amy Goodman recalled Zelaya’s words in her
2011 interview with him. In translation, Zelaya said:
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| Poverty in Honduras |
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| Manuel Zelaya Honduras overthrown |
Goodman asked Dana Frank about the responsibility of the
United States, particularly under the leadership of foreign secretary Hillary
Clinton and chief executive Barack Obama. Juan Orlando Hernández, the new
president, who came into power in January 2014, Frank said:
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| Juan Orlando Hernandez Honduras coup government |
A year and a half ago, as president
of the Honduran Congress, [he] illegally overthrew part of the Supreme Court
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| Americans in poverty |
He built his campaign not around
cleaning up the police, but a new military police that is expanding the
militarization of Honduran society; that military police itself is committing
serious human rights abuses, including, recently, in May, beating up and
jailing the most prominent advocate for children in Honduras.
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| Slums Central America |
The U.S. White House and Foreign Office legitimated “the
coup government” as an equal partner [listen to the echoes of U.S. foreign relations patterns in
Libya, Egypt and other African countries, in the Middle East’s Syria and
Palestine, in Eastern Europe’s Ukraine] to the ousted presidency—“in fact, as a
superior partner,” Frank said.
The Obama government “treated Zelaya like a bad child for trying to return to his own country” and announced, even before the votes were counted, “that they would recognize the outcome of the illegitimate November elections.”
The Obama government “treated Zelaya like a bad child for trying to return to his own country” and announced, even before the votes were counted, “that they would recognize the outcome of the illegitimate November elections.”
C
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onsequences of criminally cruel policies
More crime, unrest, discontent, poverty, migration
“When we talk about the fleeing gangs and violence,” Dana
Frank said, “it is also this tremendous poverty.”
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| Poverty in South America |
Poverty “doesn’t just happen.” Poverty “is a direct result
of policies of both the Honduran government and the U.S. government, including
privatizations, mass layoffs of government workers; and, in Honduras, a new law
now permanent that breaks up full-time jobs and makes them part-time and
ineligible for unionization, a living wage, and the national health services.”
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| Otto Perez Molina Guatemala |
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| Half of America in poverty |
This is “not like it, tragically, just happened-- nor
is it “like people are [saying] ‘Let’s go have the American dream’” – the
situation “is a direct result of very conscious policies by the U.S. and
Honduran governments.”
P
|
overty is driving the people to flee their homelands.
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| Salvador Sanchez Ceren El Salvador |
The needlessly dire situation in Honduras, she despairs in
understatement, “is very, very tragic.”
Press TV’s report is absolutely right. We cannot detach North
America’s patterns in relations, its history with Central America from conditions
in the Americas and arrivals of Central American refugees in the United States
of America.
A
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century and a half later the words still ring true:
“We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.”
“We cannot escape history,” Lincoln said.
Sources and notes
“U.S. Turns Back on
Child Migrants After Its Policies in Guatemala, Honduras Sowed Seeds of Crisis,”
July 17, 2014,
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/17/us_turns_back_on_child_migrants
Dr. Dana Frank is a writer and researcher on Central American issues and politics, Professor of
History at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and author of Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana
Unions of Latin America
“Denying child refugees ignores shared history” Press TV reporting
on July 21, 2014,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/21/372150/us-should-shelter-immigrant-children/
We can’t detach this history from
the arrival of Central American refugees to the United States. We need to
provide refuge for the children arriving from Central America. Sending them
back to the countries they are fleeing is contrary to the generous ethos of
this country. It also ignores the current and long-term causes of this
migration, and the misbegotten U.S. policies that have helped fuel it. In
recent years, the drug war has flared out of control in Central America. While
the majority of drug consumption occurs in the United States, the bulk of the
violence takes place in Central America.
Honduran politician and businessman, current President of
Honduras, Juan
Orlando Hernández Alvarado (often written as JOH, b. October 28,
1968, Gracias, Lempira) is a member of the National Party of Honduras and was President
of the National Congress of Honduras between January 2010 and June 2013 but left
his responsibilities in the Congress to campaign for the country’s presidency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Orlando_Hern%C3%A1ndez
Guatemalan politician, retired military officer, current President
of Guatemala (January 14, 2012- ), Otto Fernando Pérez Molina
(b. December 1, 1950), before entering politics was Director of Military
Intelligence, Presidential Chief of Staff under President Ramiro de Leon
Carpio, and chief representative of the military for the Guatemalan Peace
Accords. During his presidency, he has called for the legalization of drugs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Perez_Molina
Salvadoran politician and current President of El Salvador (2014-
), Salvador
Sánchez Cerén (b. June 18, 1944) was the country’s vice president (2009-2014).
In his bid for the presidency, he ran as candidate of the Farabundo Martí
National Liberation Front (FMLN). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_S%C3%A1nchez_Cer%C3%A9n
Abraham Lincoln’s Annual Message to Congress -- Concluding Remarks, Washington, D.C., December 1, 1862 [excerpt], http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/congress.htm
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