Trump's plan to cut aid would spend US policy in Central America

Written by Elisabeth Malkin

President Donald Trump's plan to cut aid to three Central American countries so as not to stem the flow of migrants to the United States breaks with years of conventional wisdom in Washington that the best way to stop migration is to to tackle its root causes.

The decision also goes against the approach advocated by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, among others. López Obrador lobbied Washington for his government to invest billions of dollars in Central America and southern Mexico, saying economic development and the reduction of violence were the most effective ways to encourage Americans from Central America to stay at home.

Cutting aid is "shooting yourself in the foot," said Adriana Beltrán, director of citizen security at the Washington office for Latin America, a research group on human rights who closely follows the help.

But the president became furious at the growing number of families arriving at the US border with Mexico asking for asylum. His administration told Congress Friday it plans to reschedule $ 450 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and has already sent instructions to the region's embbadies.

"More money is not going there anymore," he told reporters on Friday. "We bring them extraordinary help. We stopped the payment. "

Although legislators have tools to postpone this decision, it is quite possible that some, if not all, of these aids will be suspended for the time being.

The decision reverses US policy in the region. Not only will this reduce development aid and humanitarian aid, but it will also put an end to joint law enforcement efforts, such as state-controlled anti-gang units. United States, backed up so far by Republicans and the Trump administration, said Juan Gonzalez former Assistant Secretary of State for the Obama administration.

Indeed, on the eve of Trump's comments, the United States has signed a border security agreement with the three Central American governments in an effort to strengthen cooperation against human smuggling and trafficking. organized crime.

Gonzalez said the withdrawal of the aid "undermined our interests," adding that "we have actually managed to fight gangs in the United States by cooperating with regional law enforcement agencies. helped prevent an increase in the number of gangs. "

The decision also took Mexico by surprise. The government there was already shaken Friday by the threat of Trump to close some or all of the border as early as next week in reaction to the push of immigration, which was a further blow.

Lawyers argue that stopping aid will only exacerbate the root causes that push migrants to leave the three countries, where a long history of corrupt governments and rigid inequalities perpetuates deep poverty.

Gang violence, drug trafficking and abusive security forces – partly because of US policy in the region, focused on fighting communism in the 1980s and drug trafficking since the 1990s – have leads to the highest homicide rates in the world outside war zones.

The Obama administration has increased its aid after the arrival of a wave of children from Central America to the Texas border in 2014. Assistance to the region has doubled in 2016, reaching about $ 750 million, according to the Washington office on Latin America.

Beltrán, one of the group's directors, said that post-2016 support was not just about violence and insecurity, but reflected the understanding that "we had to tackle problems of governance and corruption, but also to create economic opportunities and institutions ".

With significant help reaching the region only in 2017, there has not been much time for the impact to be significant.

"There are long-term challenges that will require a long-term, sustainable solution," said Beltrán. "You can discuss how we can make sure that the help is effective, that this help will not be used to support corrupt governments."

Much of the humanitarian aid is distributed through local governments and non-governmental organizations. Cutting this aid is "illogical and vindictive," said Tim Rieser, a senior foreign policy badistant to Senator Patrick Leahy, vice-chair of the Senate's credit committee.

But cutting direct aid to the national governments of the North Triangle countries could be expected for a long time, he added, because they are part of the problem.

"Sen. Leahy does not believe we should support governments that care more about enriching and staying in power than meeting the needs of their own people, "he added, highlighting the efforts of governments Honduras and Guatemala to monitor the courts and counter the fight against corruption.

The Trump administration eased some of the pressure as the Guatemalan and Honduran governments formed conservative allies in Washington and presented themselves as allies in the fight against drugs.

In order to win favor with Washington, Guatemala followed the Trump administration by moving its Israel embbady from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said last week that his government was opening a trade office in Jerusalem, which he described as "a first step towards the embbady of his country.

There was no official response from the Central American governments on Saturday. Ebal Díaz, Honduras' minister of the presidency, told Honduran radio broadcaster Radio América that US aid was largely aimed at humanitarian and non-governmental aid groups.