Central Am
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see latin Am</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see salvador
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 10 21</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A seminal assessment released by the <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2021/item/2253-national-intelligence-estimate-on-climate-change" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Office of the Director of National Intelligence</a> details the destabilizing risks of climate change and how it could heighten national security risks in the coming years.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The assessment, released on Thursday, October 21, warned of exacerbated national security risks for the United States and other countries due to increases in intensifying physical impact and the looming possibility of instability.</b> The latest report is one of four that were released on Thursday.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the United States and other considerably wealthy companies will likely have a better chance of handling climate-related costs, the assessment says, <b>"impacts will be massive even if the worst human costs can be avoided."</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">It also warns that developing countries "are most at risk and the least adaptable to the physical effects of climate change." The problems these countries are plagued with which could lead to "instability and possibly internal conflict</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">." Per the assessment, 5 out of 11 developing countries were deemed most at risk of climate change impacts are located in South and East Asia.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The 11 most vulnerable developing countries are as follows:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Afghanistan, Burma, India, Pakistan, North Korea,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Colombia, and Iraq</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We assess that climate change will increasingly exacerbate risks to US national security interests as the physical impacts increase and geopolitical tensions mount about how to respond to the challenge," the document states. "Intensifying physical effects will exacerbate geopolitical flashpoints, particularly after 2030, and key countries and regions will face increasing risks of instability and need for humanitarian assistance."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The assessment also touched on the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the diminishing expectation that the participating countries will meet the projected goals. <b>"The current pace of transition to low- or zero-emission clean energy sources is not fast enough to avoid temperatures rising above the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees C,"</b> it reads.</font></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58508001">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58508001</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Record number of environmental activists murdered</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Claire Marshall</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BBC Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Published 13 September</font></p><p>
</p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">image captionSouth African environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase was shot dead in her own home</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A record number of activists working to protect the environment and land rights were murdered last year, according to a report by a campaign group.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>227 people were killed around the world in 2020, the highest number recorded for a second consecutive year, the report from Global Witness said.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Almost a third of the murders were reportedly linked to resource exploitation - logging, mining, large-scale agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report called the victims "environmental defenders" killed for protecting natural resources that need to be preserved, including forests, water supplies and oceans.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since the Paris Agreement on climate change was signed in 2015, the organisation says on average four activists have been killed each week.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It said this "shocking figure" was likely to be an underestimate because of growing restrictions on journalists and other civic freedoms.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Logging was the industry linked to the most murders with 23 cases - with attacks in Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru and the Philippines.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indigenous peoples, most often on the frontline of climate change, accounted for a further one third of cases. Colombia had the highest recorded attacks, with 65 people killed last year.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Unbearably heavy burden'</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A senior campaigner for Global Witness, Chris Madden, called on governments to "get serious about protecting defenders." He said companies must start "putting people and planet before profit' or he warned that "both climate breakdown and the killings" would continue.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This dataset is another stark reminder that fighting the climate crisis carries an unbearably heavy burden for some, who risk their lives to save the forests, rivers and biospheres that are essential to counteract unsustainable global warming. This must stop''.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The organisation called on governments to formally recognise the human right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment, and ensure commitments made at November's UN climate change conference, COP26, integrate human rights protections.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response, COP26 president Alok Sharma told the BBC he had "prioritised meeting people on the front line of climate change," to ensure the voices of all are heard."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Shot dead in her living room'</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those murdered included<b> South African</b> Fikile Ntshangase, 65, who was involved in a legal dispute over the extension of an opencast mine operated by Tendele Coal near Somkhele in KwaZulu-Natal province. She was shot dead in her own living room.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her daughter, Malungelo Xhakaza, 31, said her "mother's struggle lives on." She said: "To this day no arrests have been made in the investigation into my mother's murder. There has been no accountability. It seems to me that someone wants this mine expansion and the extraction to go ahead, no matter the cost."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Petmin Limited, which owns the Somkhele mine through its subsidiary Tendele Coal Mining, told Global Witness that it "acknowledges community tensions may have been a factor in Fikile's death." The company said it "strongly condemns any form of violence or intimidation" and has offered full co-operation with the police.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Óscar Eyraud Adams</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">image captionÓscar Eyraud was killed in his home in Mexico in 2020</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The killings also included Óscar Eyraud Adams, who was murdered in Mexico in September 2020. He was working to help the indigenous Kumiai community in Baja California have better access to water.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Global Witness said activists still under threat included communities in Guapinol in <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Honduras</span>, where dozens of people have been protesting against an iron oxide mining concession that was granted by the central government in a protected area. Campaigners believe the Guapinol river, a vital water source, is threatened. The organisation says "many community members remain incarcerated."</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1120 ew</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>large landslide caused by torrential rains during Hurricane Eta buried half a small village's residents, leaving the other half searching for family members and neighbors in Guatemala</b> on Tuesday, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/guatemala-landslide-could-be-final-resting-place-for-many/2020/11/09/e8817342-2307-11eb-9c4a-0dc6242c4814_story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Washington Post</a> reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refugees-eta-guatemala-2648862911.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2648862911" data-published-at="1605122669" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officials deemed Queja, a farming community of a few hundred residents, "uninhabitable," and ended rescue operations, calling for the survivors to abandon the area now mostly covered in tons of rock and mud. 99 people were reported missing, with 44 confirmed deaths.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mayor Ovidio Choc, representing the San Cristobal Verapaz region, including Queja, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-eta-guatemala-queja/guatemala-ends-rescue-operation-after-landslide-village-to-be-abandoned-idUSKBN27Q2RB" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">said</a> the evacuated village would be declared a cemetery.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The former director of Guatemala's national disaster management agency said the country is ranked among the highest risk countries for natural disasters, based on data by the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WRR_2017_E2.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">World Risk Index</a>.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refugees-eta-guatemala-2648862911.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2648862911" data-published-at="1605122669" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It is a structural problem that is linked not only the threat or the probability of producing elements like Eta, but rather other factors that make us vulnerable and are directly tied to the development of the country," Alejandro Maldonado said, The Washington Post reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The inability to invest in mitigation plans, and deforestation were likely to be circumstances that caused the landslide, noted Maldonado.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The residents of Queja are the latest addition of what is being called the "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">great climate migration</a>." Climate change is causing sea level rise and extreme weather conditions, such as intense heat, drought, <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/#::text=Climate%20change%20has%20been%20a,in%20the%20Western%20United%20States.&text=Research%20shows%20that%20changes%20in,these%20increases%20in%20wildfire%20risk." target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">wildfires</a> and enlarged hurricanes and typhoons, which induce mudslides, landslides and flooding, forcing many to flee their homes, never to return.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refugees-eta-guatemala-2648862911.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="particle-3" data-post-id="2648862911" data-published-at="1605122669" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-refugees" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">climate refugees</a> are predicted to increase in number in the <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/climate-refugee.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">coming years</a> as more natural disasters occur. According to Ecological Threat Register, a September 2020 <a href="https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ETR_2020_web-1.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">report</a> by the non-profit think tank Institute for Economics & Peace, one billion people live in areas were there is not enough infrastructure in place to combat ecological changes.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2020 already claims the largest number of <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-ne-2020-hurricane-season-active-history-atlantic-20201109-qxiclv7vtffxbkvhogblznwl5q-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">hurricanes</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/24/climate/fires-worst-year-california-oregon-washington.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">wildfires</a> ever recorded.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eta first made landfall just south of Puerto Cabezas, a city on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/03/weather/hurricane-eta-tuesday/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Nov. 3</a>, as a Category 4 hurricane, causing 140 mph winds, massive downpours and destructive flooding to several countries in Central America, including Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hurricane Eta <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/weather/eta-storm-wednesday/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word;">is expected to hit</a> Florida's Gulf Coast in its fourth landfall on Wednesday, as a Category 1 hurricane, bumped up from a subtropical storm with rains hitting southern Florida on Sunday and Monday. While diminished in intensity from its peak in Central America, landslides and flooding are expected.</font></p></div><p style="margin: 10px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="post-pager js-listicle-pager" data-listicle-style="" data-async_load_parameters="platform=desktop&display_ads=1&settings=%7B%22enter_url%22%3A+null%2C+%22no_post_section%22%3A+null%2C+%22ads_breaks%22%3A+%5B2%5D%2C+%22prevent_last_break_repetition%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_numeration%22%3A+false%2C+%22show_columns_on_mobile%22%3A+null%2C+%22ads_order%22%3A+%5B2%5D%2C+%22turn_into_posts%22%3A+null%2C+%22list_breaks%22%3A+null%2C+%22reorder_voting%22%3A+null%2C+%22cooldown_in_seconds%22%3A+null%2C+%22pagination_order%22%3A+null%2C+%22source%22%3A+%22engine_settings%22%2C+%22next_post_url%22%3A+null%2C+%22up_down_voting%22%3A+false%2C+%22allow_url_change%22%3A+null%2C+%22numeration_sort%22%3A+-1%2C+%22allow_url_update%22%3A+null%2C+%22use_pagination%22%3A+false%2C+%22body_text_above%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_ads%22%3A+true%2C+%22items_as_posts%22%3A+false%2C+%22multiple_answers%22%3A+null%2C+%22no_redirect%22%3A+null%2C+%22is_guest_voting_allowed%22%3A+null%2C+%22layout_type%22%3A+null%2C+%22voting_extra_fields%22%3A+null%7D" style="display: table; width: 620px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 20px !important;"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; visibility: hidden !important; margin-bottom: -5px !important;"><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refugee-2050-2647788456.html" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">One Billion People May Become Climate Refugees By 2050 ... ›</font></a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/louisianas-vanishing-island-americas-first-climate-refugees-1896561560.html" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Louisiana's Vanishing Island: America's First Climate Refugees ... ›</font></a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase; visibility: hidden; margin-top: 20px !important; margin-bottom: -5px !important;"><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/29/guatemala-climate-crisis-migration-drought-famine" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">'People are dying': how the climate crisis has sparked an exodus to ... ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-climate-change-is-fuelling-the-us-border-crisis" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">How Climate Change Is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis | The New ... ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Great Climate Migration Has Begun - The New York Times ›</font></a></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/bill-barr-had-deep-links-to-the-origins-of-central-american-migration-crisis-long-before-trump/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/bill-barr-had-deep-links-to-the-origins-of-central-american-migration-crisis-long-before-trump/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">JUAN</span> GONZÁLEZ:</strong> Well, Roberto, you begin the book talking about a tour you were giving in 1992 in Los Angeles at the time you were working with the immigrant rights group <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">CARECEN</span> in Los Angeles. And you’re touring around a foundation program officer, one of these people who decides whether to give money to worthy organizations. And you had very mixed feelings taking him around the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles. There’s a sudden shootout at one point. Could you talk about that whole part of your work with <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">CARECEN</span>? Also, what lessons might be drawn for a lot of activists today, Black Lives Matter activists and prison reform activists, who are suddenly being courted by foundations who suddenly have discovered that they haven’t been properly funding antiracism programs around the country?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ROBERTO</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LOVATO</span>:</strong> That’s a great question, Juan. Yeah, the opening, the introduction of the book, is 1992, right after the L.A. riots had hit. We had foundations and corporations come in, along with scholars, and it was just people interested in post-riot L.A. And we were in MacArthur Park touring, like we did. I felt like — and I say at one point I felt like, you know, I was getting tired of being like Virgil to these Dantes, you know, these aspiring Dantes wanting to see the underworld. And so, I’m showing this guy, Leland, MacArthur Park,<b> when I’m approached by the first MS-13 member I ever met</b>, this kid named José. And, you know, we were — and I could tell that Leland was scared out of his wits, like he was in a lion’s den or something, and he was looking to me for security.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And so, I open it that way because it shows kind of the way that the whole issue of youth and urban youth and gangs, even foundations and corporations will kind of shy away from, as do legislators, including legislators of color here in California, where t<b>he gangs were born, in fact, where MS-13 and 18th Street were born. And then, after they were born, they kind of adopted the structures of like the Mexican Mafia</b>. And so, I’m there when this is starting to escalate and get more violent.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And then, Attorney General William Barr, again, and at the avatar, from the Bush administration, who’s now in the Trump administration, deployed all these <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">FBI</span> resources to L.A. and other cities to start the gang war, which, you know, we see the products as we speak, right? And so, then he also introduced the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">INS</span> to then join the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LAPD</span> and law enforcement to deport the “problem,” the gang structures, to El Salvador.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Finally, William Barr, the current attorney general, the attorney general under George H.W. Bush — we just have a minute, but as you wrap up, Roberto, what is his connection to this story?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ROBERTO</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LOVATO</span>:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">William Barr, as attorney general under the first Bush, redeployed <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">FBI</span> resources, in the greatest deployment of <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">FBI</span> resources up to that point, taking <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">FBI</span> agents who were fighting foreign — you know, looking at foreign “threats,” and started focusing them on gangs. And then he starts looking at MS-13 and other gangs right after the L.A. riots. You can see he was there in L.A., and he started us on the path to eventually, like, militarizing the police, that we have right now. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And then, he then also had the<b> </b></span><b><span class="caps" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">INS</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> deport the gang “problem” to El Salvador, and then he exported, after the war,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> U.S.-style policing. And then, I found out that military trainers from El Salvador actually came to train <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LAPD</span></span></b><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> in counterinsurgency, and other police forces. It’s just when you start seeing the Robocopization of cop uniforms</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">— right? — and that we have now. And William Barr had everything to do with — had not everything, but he had a lot to do with this. I had to sing his song, because he deserves all the credit he deserves for what he did to El Salvador and to L.A. and to our national situation long before Trump....</span></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 220</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">d<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/deported-to-death-us-sent-138-salvadorans-home-to-be-killed/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important;">eported to death: US sent 138 Salvadorans home to be killed</a></font></div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-conversation/" title="Posts by The Conversation" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Conversation</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Mneesha Gellman, Emerson College At least 138 people deported from the United States to El Salvador since 2013 have been killed, according to a new report by Human Right</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How Plastic Pollution Is Making Central American Communities Uninhabitable (good history of industry) 11/19.</font></p><p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/27/plastic-pollution-guatemala/" style="%22opacity:1%3Bfill:%2315a5ea%3B%22" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" rgb="rgb" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" font-size="font-size" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">How Plastic Pollution Is Making Central American Communities Uninhabitable</a><span style="font-size: 12.7px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (good history of industry) 11/19.</span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How climate change is driving emigration from Central America</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by The Conversation<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>September 6, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Miranda Cady Hallett, University of Dayton</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clouds of dust rose behind the wheels of the pickup truck as we hurtled over the back road in Palo Verde, El Salvador. When we got to the stone-paved part of the road, the driver slowed as the truck heaved up and down with the uneven terrain. Riding in the back bed of the truck, Ruben (not his real name) and I talked while we held on tight, sitting on sacks of dried beans that he was taking to market.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It doesn’t come out right,” he said, “it just doesn’t pay anymore to work the land. I take out a loan for seed, and then I can’t count on making it back to pay off my debt.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ruben told me then, for the first time, that he planned to save up his money to migrate out of El Salvador. His story is playing out across Central America among many migrants and would-be migrants.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I spoke with Ruben, it was 2017, nearly 20 years after I had first spent time in his community, a coffee cooperative in El Salvador’s central highlands founded in the 1990s. Over those two decades, the cooperative’s hopes and dreams of a sustainable livelihood producing coffee for a global market have been dashed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rising global temperatures, the spread of crop disease and extreme weather events have made coffee harvests unreliable in places like El Salvador. On top of that, market prices are unpredictable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the back of the pickup truck that day, we talked about gangs too. There was increasing criminal activity in the town nearby, and some young people in the town were being harassed and recruited. But this was a relatively new issue for the community, layered on top of the persistent problem of the ecological crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a cultural anthropologist who studies factors of displacement in El Salvador, I see how Ruben’s situation is reflective of a much broader global phenomenon of people leaving their homes, directly or indirectly due to climate change and the degradation of their local ecosystem. And as environmental conditions are projected to get worse under current trends, this raises unresolved legal questions on the status and security of people like Ruben and his family.</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Land and livelihood</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Migration from Central America has gotten a lot of attention these days, including the famous migrant caravans. But much of it focuses on the way migrants from this region – especially El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras – are driven out by gang violence, corruption and political upheaval.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These factors are important and require a response from the international community. But displacement driven by climate change is significant too.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The migrant exodus from Central America includes many people impacted by climate change, although other factors play a part as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The link between environmental instability and emigration from the region became apparent in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Earthquakes and hurricanes, especially Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and its aftermath, were ravaging parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many people from El Salvador and Honduras lived in the U.S. at the time, and the Bush administration granted them Temporary Protected Status. In this way, the government of the United States recognized the inhumanity of sending people back to places struggling with ecological disaster.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the years since those events, both rapid-onset and long-term environmental crises continue to displace people from their homes worldwide. Studies show that displacement often happens indirectly through the impact of climate change on agricultural livelihoods, with some areas pressured more than others. But some are more dramatic: Both Honduras and Nicaragua are among the top 10 countries most impacted by extreme weather events between 1998 and 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2014, a serious drought has decimated crops in Central America’s so-called dry corridor along the Pacific Coast. By impacting smallholder farmers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, this drought helps to drive higher levels of migration from the region.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coffee production, a critical support for these countries’ economies, is especially vulnerable and sensitive to weather variations. A recent outbreak of coffee leaf rust in the region was likely exacerbated by climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fallout from that plague combines with the recent collapse in global coffee prices to spur desperate farmers to give up.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Compounding factor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These trends have led experts at the World Bank to claim that around 2 million people are likely to be displaced from Central America by the year 2050 due to factors related to climate change. Of course, it’s hard to tease out the “push factor” of climate change from all of the other reasons that people need to leave. And unfortunately, these phenomena interact and tend to exacerbate each other.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scholars are working hard to assess the scale of the problem and study ways people can adapt. But the problem is challenging. The number of displaced could be even higher – up to almost 4 million – if regional development does not shift to more climate-friendly and inclusive models of agriculture.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People who emigrate from Central America may not always fully realize the role climate change plays in their movement, or think of it as the final trigger given all the other reasons they have to flee. But they know that the crops fail too often, and it’s harder to get clean water than it used to be.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental factors are playing more and more of a role in Central Americans’ decisions to leave home.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking a protected status</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ruben recently contacted me to ask for a reference to a good immigration lawyer. He and his daughter are now in the United States and have an upcoming hearing to determine their status.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just as he predicted a few years ago, Ruben couldn’t make a living in El Salvador. But he may find it hard to live in the U.S. too, given the mismatch between refugee law and current factors causing displacement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For several years now, scholars and legal advocates have been asking how to respond to people displaced by environmental conditions. Do existing models of humanitarian response and resettlement work for this new population? Could such persons be recognized as in need of protection under international law, similar to political refugees?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the most complicated political questions is who should step up to deal with the harms of climate change, considering that wealthier countries pollute more but are often shielded from the worst effects. How can responsibility be assigned, and more importantly, what is to be done?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the absence of coordinated action on the part of the global community to mitigate ecological instability and recognize the plight of displaced people, there’s a risk of what some have called “climate apartheid.” In this scenario – climate change combined with closed borders and few migration pathways – millions of people would be forced to choose between increasingly insecure livelihoods and the perils of unauthorized migration.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">]The Conversation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Miranda Cady Hallett, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Rights Center Research Fellow, University of Dayton</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">icn 719</font></div><div><h3 class="article-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08072019/climate-change-migration-honduras-drought-crop-failure-farming-deforestation-guatemala-trump" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ravaged by Drought, a Honduran Village Faces a Choice: Pray for Rain or Migrate</font></a></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08072019/climate-change-migration-honduras-drought-crop-failure-farming-deforestation-guatemala-trump</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>See also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor" title="Operation Condor" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Operation Condor</a></b></font></div><div class="thumb tright" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 202px;"><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fidel_Castro12.jpeg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="width" height="height" viewbox="%220" e="E" cg="Cg" id="%22smallbox%22" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%23000%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22M-1.499" h10.99v7.919h1.509z="h10.99v7.919H1.509z" h5.943v4.904h-5.943z="h5.943v4.904h-5.943z" c="C" g="g" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" user-select="user-select" none="none" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">
</a></div></div></div></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cold War</a>, a series of left-leaning governments attained power via electoral polls in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America" title="Latin America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Latin America</a>. These governments faced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coups" class="mw-redirect" title="Coups" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">coups</a> sponsored<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Industrial_Repression2_16-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-Industrial_Repression2-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Greg_Grandin2_17-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-Greg_Grandin2-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-p.2232_18-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-p.2232-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government" class="mw-redirect" title="United States government" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States government</a> as part of its geostrategic interest in the region. These included the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1954 Guatemalan coup d'état" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1954 Guatemalan coup d'état</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1964 Brazilian coup d'état" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1964 Brazilian coup d'état</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1973 Chilean coup d'état" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1973 Chilean coup d'état</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Argentine_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1976 Argentine coup d'état" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1976 Argentine coup d'état</a>, among others. All of these coups were followed by United States-backed and sponsored <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing" class="mw-redirect" title="Right-wing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">right-wing</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dictatorship" title="Military dictatorship" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">military dictatorships</a> as part of the United States government's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor" title="Operation Condor" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Operation Condor</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Industrial_Repression2_16-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-Industrial_Repression2-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Greg_Grandin2_17-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-Greg_Grandin2-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-p.2232_18-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-p._2232-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These authoritarian regimes committed several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights" title="Human rights" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">human rights</a> violations including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_prisoner" title="Political prisoner" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">illegal detentions of political opponents</a>, suspects of be one and/or their families, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortures" class="mw-redirect" title="Tortures" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">tortures</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_disappearance" class="mw-redirect" title="Political disappearance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">disappearances</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_trafficking" class="mw-redirect" title="Child trafficking" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">child trafficking</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup> As these regimes started to decline due to international pressure, internal outcry in the United States from the population due to the involvement in the atrocities forced Washington to relinquish its support for them. New democratic processes began during the late 1970s and up to the early 1990s.<sup id="cite_ref-shock-doc-1262_21-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-shock-doc-1262-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With the exception of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica" title="Costa Rica" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Costa Rica</a>, essentially all Latin American countries had at least one experience with a United States-supported dictator</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">:</span><sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista" title="Fulgencio Batista" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Fulgencio Batista</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba" title="Cuba" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Cuba</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo" title="Rafael Trujillo" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Rafael Trujillo</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic" title="Dominican Republic" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Dominican Republic</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somoza_family" title="Somoza family" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Somoza family</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua" title="Nicaragua" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nicaragua</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas" title="Carlos Castillo Armas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Carlos Castillo Armas</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala" title="Guatemala" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Guatemala</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Mar%C3%ADa_Bordaberry" title="Juan María Bordaberry" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Juan María Bordaberry</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay" title="Uruguay" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Uruguay</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Rafael_Videla" title="Jorge Rafael Videla" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Jorge Rafael Videla</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Argentina</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet" title="Augusto Pinochet" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Augusto Pinochet</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile" title="Chile" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Chile</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Stroessner" title="Alfredo Stroessner" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Alfredo Stroessner</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay" title="Paraguay" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Paraguay</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier" title="François Duvalier" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">François Duvalier</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti" title="Haiti" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Haiti</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_da_Costa_e_Silva" title="Artur da Costa e Silva" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Artur da Costa e Silva</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and his successor </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em%C3%ADlio_Garrastazu_M%C3%A9dici" title="Emílio Garrastazu Médici" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Emílio Garrastazu Médici</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Brazil</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_P%C3%A9rez_Jim%C3%A9nez" title="Marcos Pérez Jiménez" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Marcos Pérez Jiménez</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela" title="Venezuela" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Venezuela</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which caused a strong </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-American_sentiment" class="mw-redirect" title="Anti-American sentiment" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">anti-American sentiment</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in wide sectors of the population.</span><sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><header style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 165px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="article--header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 20px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; line-height: 1em;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/corruption-triumphs-in-guatemalas-presidential-election-119076" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Corruption triumphs in Guatemala’s presidential election</a></h2><p class="byline" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); clear: both;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/naomi-roht-arriaza-757331" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Naomi Roht-Arriaza</a>, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">University of California, Hastings</em></span></p></div></header><div class="content" data-raw="" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 165px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">For their next president, Guatemalans must choose between two veteran politicians with shady pasts and alleged ties to organized crime.</span></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div><div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/18/headlines/us_cuts_aid_to_central_american_countries_over_immigration" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. Cuts Aid to Central American Countries over Immigration</font></a></li><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/trump-accused-of-manufacturing-crisis-by-slashing-aid-to-el-salvador-honduras-and-guatemala/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/trump-accused-of-manufacturing-crisis-by-slashing-aid-to-el-salvador-honduras-and-guatemala/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a move that was immediately denounced as “cruel” and counterproductive, the Trump State Department on Saturday <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/30/politics/state-department-aid-el-slavador-guatemala-honduras/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">confirmed</a> that it is cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.</font></p><div class="p1_17" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Cutting foreign aid to Central America is the absolute last thing the Trump administration should do right now,” Vicki Gass, senior policy advisor for Central America and Mexico with Oxfam America, said in a <a href="https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/oxfam-reaction-proposed-aid-cuts-central-america/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">statement</a>. “Not only is it morally wrong, it also counters efforts to address the root causes behind migration.”</font></p><div class="p2_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Aid cuts would be devastating to the region and would only foster the same instability that is making people flee in the first place,” Gass added.</font></p><div class="p3_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The decision to slash around $500 million in aid to the three Central American nations comes as President Donald Trump is threatening to “close” the U.S.-Mexico border.</font></p><div class="p4_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics argued that Trump’s aid cuts to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala will worsen economic hardship in those nations and force more people to flee out of desperation.</font></p><div class="p5_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This will create more refugees. This is the exact opposite of what we should be doing,” <a href="https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1112102111066513408" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted</a> journalist Thor Benson.</font></p><div class="p6_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some observers accused the president of manufacturing a crisis at the border for political gain.</font></p><div class="p7_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Making desperate people even more desperate and less able to stay in their own countries… It’s almost as if Trump wants more asylum seekers at the U.S. border,” Andrew Stroehlein, European media director with Human Rights Watch, <a href="https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1112362458801496064" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted</a> on Sunday. “As if he wants more media images that he will then twist for his fear-mongering.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">100k this mo so border, 40% kids? deport 7 yo solo?!</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><h2 class="posttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.35em; margin: 0.3em 0px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-administration-cut-aid-honduras-nicaragua-el-salvador-immigration-border-5799c55aae3a/" rel="bookmark" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump cuts aid for Central American countries, threatens border shutdown</font></a></h2><div class="postexcerpt" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.3em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House Democrats called the move "entirely counterproductive."</font></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="news_label hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img class="play" src="https://assets.democracynow.org/assets/icons/video_square-b2d9809b2d8e28a669aec9b9b6ca59ee3dd8813834e8b7151c783b16a503c3f4.png" alt="Video square" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: text-bottom; max-width: 100%; width: 16px; margin-right: 6px;" /><span class="label" style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: text-bottom; font-weight: 800; margin-right: 6px;">STORY</span><span class="date" style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: text-bottom; display: inline; opacity: 0.6;">NOV 27, 2018</span></font></div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a data-ga-action="Topic: Story Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/27/how_a_climate_change_fueled_drought" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">How a Climate Change-Fueled Drought & U.S.-Fed Violence Are Driving Thousands from Central America</font></a></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="story_summary" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Trump is urging Mexico to deport the thousands of Central American migrants who are at or approaching the U.S. border in an attempt to seek asylum, days after U.S. border authorities fired tear gas into a crowd of asylum seekers as some tried to push their way through the heavily militarized border near San Diego. Trump tweeted, “Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NOT</span> coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">WALL</span>!” This comes just days before Andrés Manuel López Obrador is sworn in as Mexico’s new president. López Obrador’s incoming government has denied it made any deal with the Trump administration to force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their U.S. asylum claims are processed. We speak with John Carlos Frey, Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">PBS</span> NewsHour special correspondent. He recently returned from reporting trips in Guatemala, Mexico City and Tijuana, where he was documenting the migrant caravan.</font></p></div></div><div class="mobile_anchor_target" id="transcript" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h5 class="transcript" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Transcript</font></h5><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">JUAN</span> GONZÁLEZ:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> To take a broader scope on this issue, you have traveled throughout Mexico and trying to deal with how—and to report on how these caravans and Central American migrants and refugees have developed. I’m wondering if you could talk about </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">two aspects that don’t get very much attention in terms of what drives the migrants and the refugees. One is the issue of the growing<b> drought recently in Central America. </b>And two is also this whole issue of the <b>deportation of felons</b> who were convicted in the United States, maybe raised in the United States, but were originally from El Salvador or Guatemala or Honduras, and have been deported in recent decades.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I think <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Washington Post</em> reported El Salvador alone, over a 20-year period, 95,000 people were deported from the U.S. after getting out of prison, back to El Salvador. That is 1.5 percent of the entire population of El Salvador—people that were deported back to the country after serving time here in the U.S. The impact of these criminals then going down to their countries where maybe they were born in but they don’t really know and developing the kinds of drug gangs that then force people to flee?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">JOHN</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CARLOS</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FREY</span>:</strong> You bring up two very good reasons for people to leave Central America. And the one that you were just mentioning, we have a program in California and now in the United States, where we will deport people who have Green Cards, people who are in the country legally, if you are a gang member. And it really doesn’t matter if you have been in the United States most of your life. It also doesn’t matter necessarily what crimes you may have committed. If you are a gang member, we’re going to deport you. We have every right to rescind your legal status, and we’re going to send you back to the country of origin, even if you came to the United States as a child.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That is exactly what we have done. That number, 95,000, is actually a bigger number than I even thought. But we have deported tens of thousands of gang members back to Central America, many of them back to El Salvador. And El Salvador just experienced its own civil unrest about 25, 30 years ago. We were deporting a criminal entity into a country that didn’t even have law enforcement. They were not stable. So what happened is these gangs reconstituted in El Salvador and they are now ruling the country. They joined back up in the prisons, and the criminal enterprise in El Salvador, also in Guatemala and Honduras, for the most part, are running the show. That is where the violence is coming from, a seed that we planted from the United States into countries that were not stable.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We didn’t even give any sort of a dossier or any sort of paperwork that allowed the countries to understand who and what we were deporting. We did not give them the crimes that they had committed, how much time they had served in prison or who these individuals were. We basically just said, “Here, you guys deal with this problem. We’re going to wash our hands of it.” Now we’re reaping the rewards of deporting this criminal element.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In addition to that, you mentioned the drought. There is a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">four- to five-year <b>prolonged drought in Central America in a region known as the Dry Corridor</b>. It encompasses parts of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. This year was one of the worst years of the drought. In some regions, there was 90 to 100 percent crop failure. Eighty percent of the region of this Dry Corridor is rural. It relies solely on agriculture as the base of the economy. And if the crops fail, there are no other jobs, there is no other place to go and people are starving.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve interviewed dozens if not more people who have left Central America who are part of this particular migrant caravan who are hungry. They cannot feed themselves or their families. They have lost their crops. They don’t have any other way to make a living. And they are coming to the United States basically for food. I talked to a woman who was 25 years old. She was with her two-year-old. She was living on one tortilla a day. That’s all she could afford, and she came because there was just no other way for her.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So we’re not dealing with these factors that are sending people here. Putting concertina wire up at the border is not going to solve someone’s poverty, it’s not going to solve the violence in Central America and it’s certainly not going to put food on the table, which is why people are coming.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">AMY</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> And you spent time just last week in Tijuana. Talk about the situation there, John.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/1/18052666/john-bolton-troika-tyranny" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/1/18052666/john-bolton-troika-tyranny</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p id="D5Fwth" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">N ational Security Adviser <a href="https://www.axios.com/john-bolton-latin-america-speech-bolsonaro-troika-c7d41d0c-f0c7-4bb9-b19a-9ac0b693ca0e.html" style="text-decoration: inherit; font-weight: 600; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: transparent !important;">John Bolton’s ultra-hawkish speech on US foreign policy toward Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua</a> scheduled for delivery this afternoon in Miami is, in part, about John Bolton’s longtime ultra-hawkishness. But the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">timing</em> of the speech is all about cynical politics.</font></p><p id="SkzjIt" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s a certain irony in Bolton appealing to a community that fled oppression in Cuba and found prosperity on American shores even as President Donald Trump’s closing argument in the 2018 midterms is <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/1/18041710/migrant-caravan-america-trump-epistemic-crisis-democracy" style="text-decoration: inherit; font-weight: 600; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: transparent !important;">demagogic fear-mongering about would-be asylum-seekers from Central America</a>. But Bolton’s charge against the “Troika of Tyranny” encompassing Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua comes today not despite Trump’s anti-immigrant rantings, but precisely because of them.</font></p><p id="oSf6ra" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After all, while an effort to put anti-immigrant themes front and center is a plausible strategy for shoring up the GOP’s position in a boatful of Midwestern races, it’s also a potential problem in the Sunshine State.</font></p><p id="3edYCl" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republicans have relied for generations on the loyal support of Cuban-American voters in South Florida, and the risk of alienating them with nonstop politics of racial fear-mongering is very real. The Cuban vote is influential in a troika of South Florida House seats — FL-26 (currently rated as a tossup), FL-27 (currently rated as likely Democratic), and FL-25 (currently rated as leaning Republican). These three seats, all currently GOP-held, would on their own represent more than 10 percent of the gains Democrats need to secure a majority in the House.</font></p><p id="At7o9w" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Democrats have also opened up narrow leads in the statewide races for both governor and senator in Florida.</font></p><p id="Ocyy8h" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is all just one slice of the overall midterm battleground. And across the country as a whole, a focus on immigration likely does work in the GOP’s favor — which is exactly why Democrats are trying to keep attention on health care. But there’s enough at stake in Florida that Republicans can’t afford to just write it off, and the anti-Latino themes the president is emphasizing are likely counterproductive in these key races.</font></p><p id="10UL09" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A renewed emphasis on the Latin American Cold War to help remind Florida’s Cuban-American population of why they became Republicans in the first place and to try to convince them that the GOP is still the party of Ronald Reagan could be just what the doctor ordered.</font></p><p id="P1knml" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unusual to deliver a major foreign policy speech not pegged to any particular external event right in the closing days of a political campaign. But it’s also unusual to be dispatching thousands of soldiers to the border to stop a caravan that is still weeks away from arriving — if it ever does arrive.</font></p><p id="GSGJgG" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Drastic last-minute moves on both fronts — moves that invoke contradictory themes — are confusing and likely unproductive from a foreign policy standpoint. But Trump is not one to put the niceties of the policymaking process over the partisan political needs of the moment. And he’s certainly not one to worry too much about whether or not he is putting forward a coherent agenda regarding the merits of people who flee bleak conditions in Latin America to seek a better life in the United States.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ul helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" text-align="text-align" center="center" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/2/headlines/us_imposes_sanctions_on_venezuela_and_cuba" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba</font></a></li><li class="hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/2/headlines/un_adopts_resolution_to_end_us_embargo_on_cuba_for_27th_time" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">U.N. Adopts Resolution to End U.S. Embargo on Cuba for 27th Time</font></a></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/24/bring_the_war_home_the_long">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/24/bring_the_war_home_the_long</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">N<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); letter-spacing: -0.2px;">early one year since hundreds of torch-bearing white supremacists held a deadly march and rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has reiterated Trump’s defense of the violent white supremacists, saying, “I think what’s important about that conversation is, it’s not that one side is right and one side is wrong. Anybody that is advocating violence, we need to work to mitigate.” Organizers from Unite the Right, the group that held the rally in Charlottesville, have announced they will hold a repeat rally on the anniversary of last year’s deadly event, with plans to descend on Washington, D.C.. For more on white supremacist violence in the United States, we speak with Kathleen Belew, assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago. Her new book is titled “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.”</span></font></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">VN vet mercenaries in c am death squads?</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">somoza son trained in US?</font></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/new-study-refutes-trumps-climate-change-denial-and-highlights-threat-corn-crops-around-world">https://www.alternet.org/new-study-refutes-trumps-climate-change-denial-and-highlights-threat-corn-crops-around-world</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To hear President Trump and his former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, tell it, climate change is a fantasy. But many scientists and researchers disagree—and according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate change could lead to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/26/6644/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">corn crop failures</a> around the world.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michelle Tigchelaar, a researcher at the University of Washington and lead author of the study, discussed her findings with NPR’s “Living on Earth” after it was published. According to Tigchelaar, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Increased warming leads to global crop failures because plants are not adapted to really high temperatures. Most of our crops are really well-adapted for our current climate. There is an optimum temperature at which they grow, and beyond that, their <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-07-15/global-corn-crop-vulnerable-effects-climate-change" style="text-decoration-line: none;">yields decline</a>.” </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The study noted that a climatic warming of only two degrees Celsius could cause corn yields to decline by 20-40% in the world’s main growing regions, while a warming of 4 degrees Celsius could result in<b> declines of 40-60%. Corn is the most traded crop in the world, and it is an important staple of the diet in Mexico </b>(where it is used to make tortillas) as well in <b>Central American countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.</b> But feeding people isn’t the only use of corn crops, which are also used for everything from sugar to biofuel to feeding livestock.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tigchelaar pointed out that the majority of the world’s corn crops are grown in a handful of countries, including the U.S., Argentina, China and Brazil—and simultaneous crop failures in those countries could have devastating effects.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Farmers, according to Tigchelaar, might be able to adapt to climate change in the future—although it won’t be easy.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Already, we see that wheat is expanding northward,” Tigchelaar explained to NPR. “So, we might be able to soon grow corn in places we couldn’t grow it before. Similarly, farmers might decide to shift their planting dates to avoid the hottest time of the year.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among environmentalists, the Trump administration has been criticized extensively for denying the existence of climate change and promoting fossil fuels over green energy. Scott Pruitt, who recently left his position as administrator for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/07/epa-head-scott-pruitt-says-global-warming-may-help-humans-flourish" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate change denier</a>—and the U.S.’ European allies were disappointed when Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/05/ban-ki-moon-us-paris-climate-agreement-withdrawal" style="text-decoration-line: none;">withdrew the U.S.</a> from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which was a big departure from the Obama administration’s environmental policies.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Merkel has stressed that Germany, unlike the U.S., has no intention of leaving the Paris Agreement.German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement as “<a href="https://apnews.com/96b5ee581a7142f3944bd565c4353b75" style="text-decoration-line: none;">very regrettable</a>,” declaring, “We know climate change isn’t a matter of faith—it’s a fact.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The German government,” according to Merkel, “stands fully behind the Paris climate accord because ambitious climate policies don’t just help limit the worst consequences of climate change—they also offer chances for innovation and therefore, growth and prosperity worldwide.”</font></p><div class="teads-inread" style="overflow: hidden; height: 0px; transition: height 0.5s; box-sizing: content-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px auto; max-width: 550px;"><div style="position: relative; margin-bottom: 0px !important;"><div class="teads-player" id="teads1" style="margin-bottom: 0px !important;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tigchelaar, during the NPR interview, noted that those most affected by global corn crop failures “would be poor, urban consumers worldwide, mainly in developing nations. That is really unfortunate because those people generally tend to be most vulnerable to climate change to begin with.”</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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