This caravan is not “seeking the American dream” but “fleeing the Honduras nightmare,” says Jari Dixon, an opposition politician in Honduras.
Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” is a 21st century fascist program of Manifest Destiny – “America First” – wrapped in the flag and Mike Pence’s Bible taken literally, with a program of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia. — Refuse Fascism 2018 Call to Action
U.S. intervention in Central American politics began with the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, setting a pattern of military strongmen, juntas, and mass killings that continues to this day. Ryan Grim traces 60 years of those policies here. “Decades of Cold War gamesmanship,” says Grim, “together with the relentless global war on drugs, have left a legacy of chaos and brutality in these countries. In many parts of the region, civil society has given way to lawlessness.” A record number of unaccompanied children fleeing dire living situations indicates just how desperate the situation has become.
Migration is an imperative for hundreds of thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans in search of a better life. “The people who are currently fleeing Honduras are being forcibly displaced from their country,” notes Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Alex Mensing, “and that is a direct result of the corrupt Honduran government and U.S. intervention and support for that corrupt government.” United Nation’s special rapporteur Felipe Gonzalez Morales says that governments should respect migrants’ human rights and allow them to pass, instead of criminalizing them and deporting them.
“Immigrants are full human beings, not ‘illegals’ or criminals, to be demonized, terrorized, hunted down, locked up, and thrown out,” reads the headline of one Idictment of the Trump/Pence Regime by RefuseFascism.org. One of President Trump’s first acts in office was an executive order targeting all 11 million undocumented immigrants for deportation, regardless of any supposed criminal record.
The collateral damage of America’s increasingly unforgiving deportation process is that people are being returned to extremely dangerous situations in Central America, which has some of the highest murder rates in the world. — see U.S. government deporting Central American migrants to their deaths
“Many of the minors who leave for the States are trying to escape being forcibly recruited into the gangs, or if they’ve already started working with the maras, leaving the country may be their only way out,” says Honduras homicide detective Jaime Coto. But a return home makes them prime targets for gang retaliations. Between four and eight murders of deportees are reported by his team every day; the actual count is likely much higher.
Sibylla Brodzinsky reports on the tens of thousands of undocumented migrants sent home every year. “Their stories highlight the risks many deportees face on their return… returning home can mean death.” This nightmare must end. Help wake and mobilize the one force that can stop terrorizing and attacking immigrants and refugees. There is a way to stop the Trump/Pence regime. A determined struggle of the people that doesn’t yield and won’t be provoked can create the kind of political crisis that compels their removal from power: We are talking about massive protests that don’t end after one day – but come back day after day after day, growing to millions raising the demand: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!