From 6-22-12 Port Huron Times Herald
“Children
Traveling Solo Across U.S. Border Face Dangerous Trip.” So headlines the NPR story of June 6,
2014. The children of Central America
are piling up on our border in unprecedented numbers. They are refugees of increasing gang violence
in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The militarization of their homelands began in earnest during the
“Iran-Contra” “low intensity” wars we fought there by proxy in the years of the
Reagan administration. We were fighting
against purported Communist incursions at our borders. Profits from drug smuggling, that our CIA at times facilitated, were used to bring down leftist governments, and displace suspect
peasant communities.
At present the descendants of these violent campaigns are
being displaced by this legacy. Some
were leftist guerrillas, many more were trained by our School of the Americas as counter-revolutionary fighters,
given lots of money and weapons to do so. [for an organization dedicated to its
closing—SOA
Watch] When the eagle eyes of war
turned to Afghanistan and Iraq, they and their children were left with
devastated communities, schooled in violence, but bereft of benefactors. The
drug trade, that had helped sustain the Iran-Contra era wars, flourished in
the aftermath.
The Forward Operating Bases of our current U.S. supported War on Drugs -- from NYT map
Honduras was a central base for the U.S. military to
train Central Americans to fight communism on their own turf. Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan
leftists were the main target. [The
diocese of San Cristobal in Chiapas, Mexico where I’ve worked in a medical
clinic, was a major refugee center for those who fled these 1980’s wars in
bordering Guatemala.] Now Honduras is
plagued by drug gang violence which according to the NPR
report cited above [please spend the 5 minutes], reaches right into the
grade schools where students are directly threatened by the gangs. They come right into the school yards and
say, “if you don’t join with us we’ll kill you and your family.” Often enough they follow through on their
threat. Some kids join, many are
leaving alone on the long trip “al Norte” with the blessing and distraught
hopes of their families.
hey’re stopped at our border, and now swell to
overwhelming, our detention facilities.
Commentators, including our Representative Candice Miller, suggest that
this is primarily a problem of lax enforcement of immigration law, allowing too
many from these countries to hope that our borders are open to an influx of
illegals. They argue we’ve left the
impression with policies, such as the “Dream Act” [makes higher education
available to children of families that have entered illegally], of increasingly
unfettered welcome to the children the countries to our south. The
number of these children has increased ten-fold in the past three years, to
60,000/yr, and is expected to climb above 100,000 in the next year.
Congresswoman Miller’s approach is to further strengthen
the wall on our Southern border by calling out the National Guard, mounting a
“don’t come” PR campaign in the Central American countries, and deporting those
children that have made it so far, as soon as possible. “Congresswoman urges Obama to send National
Guard to border.” Washington Times 6-16-14. Not realizing the danger these children
face, she hopes they can be convinced, not to try to come here in the first
place. I’ll urge her and you to listen
to the NPR program, and see the film Sin Nombre which tells the tragic
story of what these kids face in their home barrios, and on journey north [has
a few terribly realistic, violent scenes.]
There are certainly economic reasons for these people to
leave their homes to seek the USA, but the militarization that coincided with drugs trafficking we tolerated to help the cause of anticommunism, has
transformed into a full-scale war on the drug networks themselves. In Honduras we concurred with a military coup
of their democratically elected President Zelaya in 2009. There followed an
upsurge of U.S. and Honduran army activity. The latest weapons and tactics used in Iraq
and Afghanistan were imported. The drug
cartels matched us weapon for weapon, [dollar for dollar—paradoxically earned
in the U.S illegal market for drugs] and a
new battle is on. The people and their children suffer deeply in
between.
+--+Honduran+President+Juan+Orlando+Hernandez+-right+front-+speaks+to+U.S.+Marine+Corps+Gen.+John+F.+Kelly,commander+of+the+U.S.+Southern+Command+-left+front.jpg)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (June 2, 2014) -- Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez -right front- speaks to U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly,commander of the U.S. Southern Command -left front
We won’t solve our immigration problems until we gut the
money from the illegal drug trade. Abstinence, the courageous strength received
in prayer, creative work for all here and south of our border, and a cogent
form of legalizing and controlling the abused substances, are the necessary anti-drug
culture strategies. No amount of military
technology, hardware, or training can turn the tide. No
signs saying “Children abused in the war on drugs—Turn back!” are helpful.
From the NPR interview, “…we are spending $18 billion per year on border enforcement. That's a
lot of money. And many people who study this say that if we put a fraction of
that towards targeted economic development it would slow the flow much more
than that 700 mile-long wall would. So I think it's a matter of how you spend
your money.” And Fox News and the
AP had the Drug Wars cost-benefit right, “After 40 years, $1 trillion, US War on Drugs
has failed to meet any of its goals.” But militarizing this war
has driven the economic and human costs through the roof.
.jpg)
The Flight into Egypt was a flight from violence, the
violence of a Herod obsessed with the protection of his throne and its
lifestyle. For this he was willing to
sacrifice the Holy Innocents infant children of Bethlehem, perhaps hundreds. We are called to reverse this, putting on
the mind of Christ, and offer refuge to those who flee suffering and injustice.
One way to help.
Contact Casa Juan Diego, a Catholic Worker community in Houston,
Texas. They have been serving the needs
of these refugees for decades.
Another is to call the office of our Representative
Candice Miller, and request just Christian solutions to this refugee
crisis, that heal, not aggravate, the violence. 1 202 224 3121
***************************************************
Illumination by Kathy Brahney
References
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/cia.html
[be sure to read to intro’s final paragraph--and beyond if you’ve the time]
“Inside San Pedro Sula – the most violent city in the
world”
“City in Honduras
has a murder rate of 173 per 100,000 residents, reportedly the highest in the
world outside a war zone
Violence began to
flare in the early 2000s and has risen steadily since the country took on a
bigger role in the drug routes from South America to the US. About 80% of the cocaine headed for
America passes through Honduras, according to the US state department.
An already frail state has been further weakened by the infiltration of
organized crime and a 2009 coup, after which reports of human rights abuses
against supporters of the deposed president rocketed. At the same time rival
street gangs known as maras – many of whose members were deported from US jails
– battle to control local drug markets and extortion rackets.”
“The homicide rate
is stoked by the rivalry of the brutal street gangs, mostly descendants of
gangs formed in Los Angeles and deported to Central America in the 1990s. Mara
Salvatrucha — MS. The 18th Street gang. Their ranks are fed by the economic
disaster that is Honduras and emboldened more recently by alliances with
Mexican drug traffickers moving cocaine through the country.
The mayhem is compounded by
political killings, mostly of leftist activists and those demanding land rights
in this throwback semi-feudal country, and vigilante slayings by some police
units.”
Pope Francis at Wall of Seperation--, Bethlehem, West Bank, 5-25-14 Catholic News Service
“Lessons of Iraq Help U.S. Fight a Drug War in Honduras” NYT 5-6-12
- excerpts
“Honduras is the
latest focal point in America’s drug war. As Mexico puts the squeeze on
narcotics barons using its territory as a transit hub, more than 90 percent of
the cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela bound for the United States passes
through Central America. More than a third of those narcotics make their way
through Honduras, a country with vast ungoverned areas — and one of the highest
per capita homicide rates in the world.
This new offensive,
emerging just as the United States military winds down its conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan and is moving to confront emerging threats, also showcases the
nation’s new way of war: small-footprint missions with limited numbers of
troops, partnerships with foreign military and police forces that take the lead
in security operations, and narrowly defined goals, whether aimed at
insurgents, terrorists or criminal groups that threaten American interests. …
But the mission
here has been adapted to strict rules of engagement prohibiting American combat
in Central America, a delicate issue given Washington’s messy history in
Honduras, which was the base for the secret operation once run by Oliver North
to funnel money and arms to rebels fighting in neighboring Nicaragua. Some
skeptics still worry that the American military might accidentally empower
thuggish elements of local security forces. …
The third forward
base, at El Aguacate in central Honduras, has sprung from an abandoned airstrip
used by the C.I.A. during the Reagan era.
Narcotics cartels, transnational organized crime and gang violence are
designated as threats by the United States and Central American governments,
with a broader consensus than when that base was built — in an era when the
region was viewed through a narrow prism of communism and anticommunism.”
“Honduran Villages Caught in Drug War’s Cross-Fire” NYT 5-23-12
Young people have
also started developing a taste for the “narco life.” Drug use was once
unheard-of on the Mosquito Coast. Now it is surging. More disturbingly to some,
in a country with the
highest homicide rate in the world, teenagers are developing a taste for
weapons.
“Ousted Leader Is Set to Return to Honduras” NYT 5-11-11
Mr. Zelaya was
ousted by the military in a dispute over his efforts to change the Honduran
Constitution.
“The bystanders of Honduras are not fair game in
America's drug war” The Guardian, 5-21-12
“One month after
relinquishing control of night raids in Afghanistan, a raid in Honduras led by
the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has shed light on how the US is
beginning to shift resources from its wars in the Middle East to its ongoing
drug war in the Americas.
In the pre-dawn
hours of 11 May, the DEA and Honduran police (in concert with the US Navy) were
tracking a group of suspected cocaine smugglers along the Patuca River, near
the village of Ahuas. Using a fleet of US state department helicopter gunships, piloted
by Guatemalan military personnel and temporary contract pilots, the operation
followed the smugglers to a boat dock, at which point a firefight broke out, killing
four.
The raid, or
"small-footprint mission", is part of a new counter-narcotic
offensive in which the DEA, along with various segments of the US military, is
applying tactics developed in the Iraq and Afghan wars to combat cocaine
smuggling throughout Central America. The offensive thus far includes the
construction of three new military bases in Honduras, which house some 600
American soldiers. This expansion of the US's presence was agreed upon shortly
after former president Manuel Zelaya was deposed by the Honduran military in
2009.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/21/bystanders-honduras-america-drug-war
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