Category Archives: Central America

Mexico considering $30 billion Central American investment to stop migrant crisis — US should, too

I have an op-ed with The Hill arguing that the US should provide greater attention and resources to the humanitarian crisis in Central America.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is considering a plan to invest $30 billion over the next five years to promote development in Central America’s Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The plan’s details are still unsettled but investing in Central America, and even southern Mexico, to reduce the number of people who feel that they have no choice but to leave the region is worth the investment.
Central America's political and economic development needs to be more of a priority. This plan might not address the needs of the millions of people who have already left and are in transit somewhere in Mexico or awaiting asylum hearings in the United States, which should also be addressed. A few million dollars here and there with little follow-through has not cut it. The United States should work with its Mexican and Central American partners to address the immediate and long-term needs of those living amidst a humanitarian crises.
Given the cast of characters now occupying the highest elected office in the United States, Mexico, and Central America's Northern Triangle, I'm skeptical about a truly transformative initiative. However, several opportunities for cooperation on mutually beneficial policies do exist.

You can read my thoughts here. 

Mexico considering $30 billion Central American investment to stop migrant crisis — US should, too

I have an op-ed with The Hill arguing that the US should provide greater attention and resources to the humanitarian crisis in Central America.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is considering a plan to invest $30 billion over the next five years to promote development in Central America’s Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The plan’s details are still unsettled but investing in Central America, and even southern Mexico, to reduce the number of people who feel that they have no choice but to leave the region is worth the investment.
Central America's political and economic development needs to be more of a priority. This plan might not address the needs of the millions of people who have already left and are in transit somewhere in Mexico or awaiting asylum hearings in the United States, which should also be addressed. A few million dollars here and there with little follow-through has not cut it. The United States should work with its Mexican and Central American partners to address the immediate and long-term needs of those living amidst a humanitarian crises.
Given the cast of characters now occupying the highest elected office in the United States, Mexico, and Central America's Northern Triangle, I'm skeptical about a truly transformative initiative. However, several opportunities for cooperation on mutually beneficial policies do exist.

You can read my thoughts here. 

Central America has long functioned as a testing ground for American imperial violence

Miles Culpepper has a good article on The Debt We Owe Central America in Jacobin. Miles is a graduate student in the Department of History at The University of California at Berkeley.
Central America has long functioned as a testing ground for American imperial violence, a region where policymakers and military officials learn brutal tactics and strategies that they then apply elsewhere in the world.
But there’s no reason Central America can’t instead be the point of origin for a more humane, democratic foreign policy. The ballooning defense budgets that accompany American imperial projects weaken our ability to build a decent society at home. The violence engendered by these same projects weakens the ability of our sibling republics to the south and around the world to do the same.
The starting point for an anti-imperialist foreign policy is a simple principle: do no harm. When Central American reform movements emerge to create more egalitarian and democratic societies, Washington needs to get out of their way. When refugees arrive seeking asylum, the US should let them in. And if political violence erupts again, as it did in the 1980s, the US mustn’t side with the military and right-wing elites.
To create a better world, in which families need not flee their homes in a bid for basic personal security, American policymakers cannot close the United States off from the outside world. Nor should they continue to try to remold the world beyond our borders, like so much loose clay, in order to serve selfish political interests at home.
The moral imperative is instead to fashion a foreign policy based on the noble ideals of democracy, self-determination, and human rights that have inspired men and women across the Americas for generations.
I tend to be more moderate than those who write for Jacobin. Maybe that's my problem. I would have liked to have read more coverage dedicated to recent US-Central American relations and less to the historical angle but the article's still worth a read. I'm actually thinking about using it as the first assignment for students to read in my spring US-Latin American relations course.

Central America has long functioned as a testing ground for American imperial violence

Miles Culpepper has a good article on The Debt We Owe Central America in Jacobin. Miles is a graduate student in the Department of History at The University of California at Berkeley.
Central America has long functioned as a testing ground for American imperial violence, a region where policymakers and military officials learn brutal tactics and strategies that they then apply elsewhere in the world.
But there’s no reason Central America can’t instead be the point of origin for a more humane, democratic foreign policy. The ballooning defense budgets that accompany American imperial projects weaken our ability to build a decent society at home. The violence engendered by these same projects weakens the ability of our sibling republics to the south and around the world to do the same.
The starting point for an anti-imperialist foreign policy is a simple principle: do no harm. When Central American reform movements emerge to create more egalitarian and democratic societies, Washington needs to get out of their way. When refugees arrive seeking asylum, the US should let them in. And if political violence erupts again, as it did in the 1980s, the US mustn’t side with the military and right-wing elites.
To create a better world, in which families need not flee their homes in a bid for basic personal security, American policymakers cannot close the United States off from the outside world. Nor should they continue to try to remold the world beyond our borders, like so much loose clay, in order to serve selfish political interests at home.
The moral imperative is instead to fashion a foreign policy based on the noble ideals of democracy, self-determination, and human rights that have inspired men and women across the Americas for generations.
I tend to be more moderate than those who write for Jacobin. Maybe that's my problem. I would have liked to have read more coverage dedicated to recent US-Central American relations and less to the historical angle but the article's still worth a read. I'm actually thinking about using it as the first assignment for students to read in my spring US-Latin American relations course.

‘A human tragedy’

I spoke with CNN's Catherine Shoichet in Forget conspiracy theories about migrants. Here's what experts say is going on. And it's not about the midterms. Here is some of what Catherine and I spoke about.
The situation is complicated, Allison said.
"There are contradictory things that we're still trying to tease out about the root causes," he said.
In Honduras, for example, the murder rate -- one factor analysts typically cite when they study why people migrate -- has been declining.
But despite the lingering questions about these large groups forming, Allison said the most important thing to do right now isn't to pinpoint why they're leaving; it's to address the humanitarian crisis that's emerging as they make the trek.
"These are people who really, with the information that they have available to them, have decided that this is their best opportunity. It's not something they take lightly. It's not something we should think they're being manipulated by Honduran politicians or US politicians to do," he said.
You can read the rest of the article here.