{"id":4560,"date":"2023-11-22T14:40:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T21:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/?page_id=4560"},"modified":"2023-11-22T14:40:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T21:40:13","slug":"centam-migration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/centam-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence and poverty push families to flee Central America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">By Paul Jeffrey<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><em>Published in <\/em>response <em>magazine in April 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Vilma Maldonado\u2019s son Jesus left their home in Honduras in 2010. After a military coup the year before, gangs and police took turns terrorizing the town where they lived on the country\u2019s north coast. Jesus got death threats. With the country\u2019s murder rate among the highest in the world, he took the threats seriously and headed north, preferring to face the dangers of traveling through Mexico to those of staying home. He last called his mother in 2011 from northern Mexico. She hasn\u2019t heard from him since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Late last year, Ms. Maldonado joined a group of mothers who traveled to Mexico to look for relatives disappeared along the migrant trail. Although she didn\u2019t find Jesus, she did find some clues to his whereabouts. Although church activists in Mexico will continue the search, Ms. Maldonado came back empty-handed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWhen I got home, my five-year old grandson Alexander asked me if I had found his father. I said I had not. He told me to go back to Mexico and find him, that I couldn\u2019t leave him there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"633\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133-950x633.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4561\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133-950x633.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133-590x393.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration133.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Vilma Maldonado holds a photo of her son Jesus Humberto Sanchez Maldonado in the street near her home in La Lima, Honduras. The young man left for the United States in 2010, but Maldonado hasn&#8217;t heard from him since his last phone call home in 2011 from the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. Maldonado is a member of a group of mothers of migrants who have disappeared on their journey north.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ms. Maldonado belongs to a local mothers\u2019 committee that provides psychological support for its members, conducts DNA testing to identify the remains of migrants whose bodies are recovered, and sells raffle tickets to raise money when they need to repatriate a cadaver from the U.S. or Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;Having other women to be with is a big help for me. Each of us feels supported by the others. The tears of one are the tears of all, whether we\u2019re crying with joy or with sadness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ms. Maldonado didn\u2019t feel the same support in Mexico. \u201cIn Mexico they don\u2019t like Central Americans and they treat us like delinquents. But our husbands and sons and daughters aren\u2019t criminals. They are international workers and they should be allowed to pass through Mexico. They want to work, not stay in Mexico where there\u2019s crime and drugs and the Zetas and cartels. Mexico is a cemetery for migrants. We went to one mass grave for migrants and it was in a garbage dump. That\u2019s where they bury our loved ones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>\u201cNow the children are leaving\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Similar support groups have cropped up around Honduras. In Goascoran, a hardscrabble village in the south of the country that in recent decades has been ravaged by war, drought and hurricanes, activists attempt to slow the flow of emigrants to Spain and other countries<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe let people know the risks they\u2019ll confront on the journey north. But even though they acknowledge they may die trying, we can\u2019t say don\u2019t go. It\u2019s their right, and for many there\u2019s no hope left here. There\u2019s simply too much poverty,\u201d said Heraida Ramirez, who heads the town\u2019s Migrant Families Committee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ms. Ramirez says that while 8,000 people live in the community, another 3,000 have left as migrants. \u201cWe went door to door to door to talk with people, and just about every house has a migrant living abroad,\u201d said Ramirez, whose sister Sandra has lived in Los Angeles for the last 25 years. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t have any papers, so when my mother and father died, she couldn\u2019t come back. She cries on the phone with me when we talk about our family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Lorena Euceda, a teacher who heads a committee that combats human trafficking in the nearby border crossing of El Amatillo, says the demographics of migration have shifted over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cFirst the men left, and the women stayed behind. The birth rate dropped and we had fewer children in the schools. Then the mothers started going. And now the children are leaving. Their parents are sending for them, paying <em>coyotes<\/em> [migrant smugglers] to take them north. I explain the dangers, but they insist on going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"641\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053-950x641.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4574\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053-950x641.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053-590x398.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053-768x518.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053-1536x1036.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration053.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Anti-trafficking activist Lorena Euceda talks with a truck driver at the El Amatillo border crossing between Honduras and El Salvador. Euceda, a school teacher in nearby Goascoran, spends time at the border educating others and keeping her eyes open for incidents of human trafficking. She is a leader of the Catholic Church&#8217;s immigration ministry in the province of Valle.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ms. Euceda says school officials promised the children that if they were returned home, their teachers would help them make up for the school they missed while traveling north. So many did not return that schools had to make adjustments. In the nearby drought-stricken village of Los Horcones, so many kids left for the U.S. that the school closed last year. A few remaining students have to walk to another community for classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">For those who insist on leaving, Ms. Euceda and the others attempt to equip them with basic survival strategies. For example, they tell them not to write down any phone numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cIf you\u2019ve got a phone number written down and you\u2019re kidnaped, your captors can call that number and demand ransom. So we tell people to memorize the phone numbers they\u2019ll need and not to share them with anyone,\u201d Ms. Euceda said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The exodus of children in the middle of last year was spurred on by false information that originated with those who earn their living smuggling migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cThe <em>coyotes<\/em> were spreading the word that it was easy to get across the border and so people had to hurry,\u201d said Carlos Hernan Carmona, president of the committee of people with disappeared family members. \u201cBut it was lies. The coyotes tell you a lot of beautiful things, like that you\u2019ll ride the whole way in buses with good food. But in fact you will go hungry and end up walking for hours and hours through the brush or the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">One of the Goascoran adolescents whose family was convinced by the rumors was Aleska Garcia, who was 16 in June when she headed north. Her mother, who has lived in the U.S. for 12 years, paid a coyote $6,000 for the trip. On her first day in Mexico, Garcia was apprehended by immigration police, detained for a week in crowded facilities, and then deported home. Yet a cousin traveling with Garcia made it safely to her family in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"632\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080-950x632.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4564\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080-950x632.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080-590x393.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080-768x511.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/honduras_2014_jeffrey_immigration080.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Aleska Garcia, 17, poses with her grandmother, Petronila Reyes, at their home in Goascoran, Honduras. The teenager left Honduras in June 2014 to travel north to be with her mother, who has lived in the United States for 12 years, but she was detained by Mexican immigration officials and returned to Honduras. For now she says she wants to remain at home and finish her high school studies.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The experience has convinced Garcia to stay home for now. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that again. I want to finish high school, then enroll in computer classes at the university,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Her grandmother, Petronila Reyes, is glad the girl is back. \u201cI was sad when my granddaughter left. She has grown up with us old people. When I heard she was detained in Mexico I cried. But thanks to God she made it back exactly the same,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Push factors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">When sociologists discuss immigration, they often refer to \u201cpush factors,\u201d the elements of national life which encourage residents to flee. In Central America, push factors range from political instability to free trade to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In Honduras, a 2009 coup that overthrew the democratically-elected president, Manuel Zelaya, was led by Gen. Romeo V\u00e1squez, who trained at the U.S. Army&#8217;s School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The coup plotters hired an old friend of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as their lobbyist, and soon the Obama administration backed away from imposing any consequences. U.S. military aid and training continued despite Honduran government repression of pro-democracy demonstrators, journalists, and human rights activists. Honduras soon became the murder capital of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Repression of journalists encourages government-friendly media, which retain official favor by making it appear that gangs\u2013not the government or organized crime\u2013are the main cause of the violence that pushes people to leave. Authorities are then free to repress gang populations. Governments in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have all attempted variations of <em>mano dura<\/em>, the \u201ciron fist\u201d approach, locking up anyone with tattoos or any evidence of links to gangs. As prisons filled up, violence continued unabated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"663\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023-950x663.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4570\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023-950x663.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023-590x412.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023-768x536.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023-1536x1072.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mexico-2013-jeffrey-migrants-A023.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>A group of Central Americans searching for family members who disappeared in Mexico walks through the center of Tapachula, Mexico, on December 16, 2013. The group, mostly mothers looking for their children, spent 17 days touring 14 Mexican states in search of their loved ones, most of whom had disappeared while following the migrant trail north. These women carry a flag from their native Nicaragua.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Catholics in El Salvador helped negotiate a cease-fire between the two main gangs in 2012, and for 15 months the country\u2019s murder rate dropped by more than two-thirds. But resistance to the cease-fire came from powerful private security companies, as well as from media outlets for which headlines of gang violence helped to sell newspapers. Within the gangs themselves, resistance to the truce grew when extortion operations\u2013deprived of the ability to punish noncompliance with death\u2013began to lose their profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Gangs offer young people both acceptance in a society of dysfunctional families as well as job security amidst high youth unemployment. Several churches have launched job training programs, yet even a well-qualified youth can have difficulty finding a job if they tell prospective employers they live in a neighborhood controlled by a gang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">According to Carlos San Martin, a Spanish priest at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic parish, which runs a huge job training program in the Mejicanos neighborhood of San Salvador, if a youth can\u2019t find a job, they have three options. \u201cOne, you accept that you\u2019re going to live in absolute poverty without a future your whole life. Two, you join the gangs, which gives you certain guarantees and protection. Or three, you emigrate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"582\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07-950x582.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4569\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07-950x582.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07-590x361.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07-768x470.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07-1536x940.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/el_salvador_2014_jeffrey_youth07.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Eduardo Javier Contreras, 19, learns bartending at a vocational training center run by the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in the San Salvador neighborhood of Mejicanos. The training program focuses on at-risk youth living in neighborhoods affected by gang violence.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Studies show that Mejicanos produces about 10 percent of the country\u2019s immigrants, so obviously many youth are taking the third option, despite the church\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Gangs have been demonized in El Salvador and those who seek alternatives for young people are often dubbed collaborators. San Martin\u2019s predecessor, Father Antonio Rodriguez, was arrested by the government last year for communicating with gang leaders, and later deported. Father San Martin says he\u2019s not intimidated by either government actions or the danger of working in gang-controlled neighborhoods. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense to remember someone crucified two thousand years ago if we don\u2019t accompany those who are crucified today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Differing policies toward youth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Gangs have taken inordinate power in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala\u2013what Central Americans dub the Northern Triangle\u2013but not in Nicaragua, the poorest country in the region. Nicaragua has also sent less migrants north than its three neighbors. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The draconian anti-crime laws that unleashed massive repression against marginalized youth in the northern countries contrast sharply with the preventative community-based policing approach employed in Nicaragua. These differences reflect recent history\u2013the Northern Triangle incarnated the worst of U.S.-supported military repression in the 1980s, for example, while Nicaraguans overthrew a dictator and then had to fight the United States to keep the Sandinista revolution intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"627\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836-950x627.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4571\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836-950x627.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836-590x389.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836-768x507.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_5153836.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Girls play basketball during a recess from school in Tuixcajchis, a small Mam-speaking Maya village in Comitancillo, Guatemala.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Fast forward to this past decade, when Honduras and El Salvador effectively suspend human rights to round up and imprison tens of thousands of youth in overcrowded and dilapidated facilities that became the site of inexplicable fires and massive abuse. In Nicaragua, where the police created special units for dealing with families and youth while at the same time participating in community organizations, transnational gangs have little presence. Moreover, crime is relatively low. The police\u2013headed by a well-respected woman\u2013are generally trusted. While far from perfect, Nicaragua\u2019s approach has mitigated some of the economic motivations to emigrate. And many of those Nicaraguans who felt compelled to seek out economic opportunity elsewhere have preferred to go to neighboring Costa Rica rather than risk their lives traveling north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Canal divides Nicaragua<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">One project which supporters suggest will create needed employment in Nicaragua is a 172-mile canal from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean coast. Supposedly bankrolled by a wealthy Chinese telecoms mogul, construction on the $50 billion project is scheduled to begin later this year. Yet questions abound about Chinese government involvement, the effect on water quality in Lake Nicaragua (the country\u2019s largest source of fresh water), and whether peasant farmers and indigenous communities that are relocated from the canal\u2019s path will be fairly compensated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Championed by the country\u2019s president, Daniel Ortega, the project has been characterized by a lack of transparency; studies about the canal\u2019s environmental impact remain unpublicized, for example, stoking suspicion and opposition. At the inauguration ceremony in December, dozens of protesters were arrested. Even before digging begins, the canal has divided Nicaragua. And Nicaraguan poet-priest Ernesto Cardenal warned in a recent op-ed that it will get worse. \u201cWith this canal, the country will be divided in two: the Nicaragua of the North and that of the South, like the two Germanys and the two Koreas,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In the 19<sup>th<\/sup> Century, Nicaragua was considered by many to be the most feasible place to construct a canal, but political considerations\u2013and a Nicaraguan postage stamp featuring a volcano\u2013threw the project into a province of Colombia where the U.S. stage-managed a revolution to create the separate country of Panama. The U.S. took over\u2013and finished\u2013canal construction begun years earlier by the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The proposed Chinese-Nicaraguan canal will be deeper and broader than even a recently enlarged Panama Canal. Crossing the isthmus at Nicaragua instead of Panama will shorten a trip from New York to San Francisco by 500 miles. But Central America has seen scores of canal projects that never materialized; opponents of the Chinese canal in Nicaragua may have to merely wait to see it fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Canadians steal beaches<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The proposed canal is symbolic of an increasing Chinese economic involvement in Latin America. China is already the main trade partner for Brazil, Chile and Peru, and Nicaragua isn\u2019t the only place where graffiti stating <em>Fuera Chinos<\/em>\u2013\u201cChinese go home\u201d\u2013has appeared. Resistance has grown in Ecuador to China\u2019s involvement in its oil industry, and in Peru to China\u2019s mining enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Chinese aren\u2019t the only outsiders whose presence has sparked protests. Along the Caribbean coast of Honduras, a group of Canadians headed by Randy Jorgensen, dubbed the Canadian \u201cPorn King\u201d because he made his fortune from a chain of adult bookstores, has taken over prime beach land belonging to the Garifuna people, descendants of African slaves and Caribbean natives. Mr. Jorgensen has spearheaded the construction of several housing developments and a cruise ship port in Trujillo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bertha Arzu, director of the Network of Black Women in Honduras, a long-time partner of United Methodist Women, is among those Garifuna leaders who have banded together to fight the takeover. But she\u2019s not hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe\u2019ve lost a lot of land. Our people have been displaced. There\u2019s no justice now. There\u2019s total impunity,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery day we\u2019re poorer and more insecure. As we have lost our culture, people have emigrated. Our sense of solidarity, even within the family, has deteriorated. Our whole way of life has been lost to this collusion of national and international empires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami-950x1418.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4572\" width=\"475\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami-950x1418.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami-590x881.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami-768x1146.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami-1029x1536.jpg 1029w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-sunset-over-mico-lagoon-as-seen-from-the-garifuna-village-of-miami.jpg 1206w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><figcaption><em>A lagoon and beach near Miami, Honduras, a Garifuna village. The Garifuna are under great pressure from foreign companies that want their beach locations for housing developments and tourist facilities.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Yet the Canadian invasion may be just the beginning. Honduras has become ground zero for the \u201cCharter Cities\u201d movement, in which wealthy libertarians from the U.S. and elsewhere can flesh out their dream of living in a land with no government. Last year the Honduran government pushed through legislation (after firing four justices on the country\u2019s Supreme Court when they disagreed) that legalizes the ceding of national sovereignty in huge enclaves which would be controlled entirely by foreigners. While North Americans have their eyes set on the Trujillo area, a group of Korean investors are making plans for the southwest of the country on the Gulf of Fonseca. The Koreans have also proposed a $20 billion \u201cdry canal\u201d\u2013a fast rail connection from the Pacific to the Caribbean\u2013that would compete with the Panama Canal and the proposed Chinese-Nicaraguan canal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Resistance to mining<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">A decade ago, Central American governments ignored protests from their own citizens and approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The Dominican Republic was also included in what is commonly called DR-CAFTA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The agreement has proved to be a disaster for the region\u2019s poor. Unemployment and labor abuses have risen, farmers have been displaced when they can\u2019t compete with grain imported from the United States, and natural resource extraction has expanded with little regard for the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"713\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11-950x713.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4573\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11-950x713.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11-590x443.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a11.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>A mine in western Honduras.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">DR-CAFTA includes a provision called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism, which allows private corporations to sue governments over profits the corporations supposedly lost because of government regulations. This has allowed foreign mining corporations to do what they want, no matter the opposition from citizens or governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Some governments have given away the store when it comes to mining. In Honduras, for example, mining permits have been issued for 35 percent of the land. But two countries have responded positively to citizen demands to protect their environment. Community pressure in El Salvador to protect watersheds\u2014which are deeply vulnerable to toxic mining runoff\u2014has so far prevented companies from successfully extracting minerals like gold on a large scale, and convinced the government to declare a moratorium on mining. In Costa Rica the legislature voted unanimously in 2010 to prohibit open-pit mining and ban the use of cyanide and mercury in mining activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Punishment has been swift. Several U.S. and Canadian companies have used DR-CAFTA\u2019s provisions to sue these governments directly. Such disputes are arbitrated by secret tribunals like the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is hosted by the World Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In 2009, Commerce Group, a U.S. company, sued El Salvador for closing a highly polluting mine. The case was dismissed in 2011 for lack of jurisdiction, but El Salvador still had to pay several million dollars in fees for its defense. In a case still in process, the gold-mining conglomerate Pacific Rim sued El Salvador over its strict anti-mining regulations. To get around the fact that the Canadian company wasn\u2019t from a signatory country to DR-CAFTA, it moved its subsidiary from the Cayman Islands to Reno, Nevada, in a bid to use the agreement\u2019s provisions. Although since acquired by an Australian company, it has continued to demand over $300 million in \u201clost profits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"632\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-950x632.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4575\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-950x632.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-590x393.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-768x511.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hn9jeffrey-H208-2048x1363.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Children run along the bed of a river in Honduras that has gone dry since a Canadian mining company installed a gold mine in the area and has monopolized the area&#8217;s water, leaving small farms and riverbeds dry.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">DR-CAFTA has been used by corporate pirates in other economic sectors as well. TECO Guatemala Holdings, a U.S. corporation, alleged in 2009 that Guatemala had wrongfully interfered with its investment in an electricity distribution company. In other words, TECO wanted to charge higher electricity rates to Guatemalan users than those the state deemed fair. When the case concluded, Guatemala was forced to pay $21.1 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in legal fees beyond what it spent on its own defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Such legal proceedings, which essentially undermine sovereignty and democracy, have a normative effect on governments, what\u2019s been dubbed \u201cregulatory chill.\u201d Although Guatemala has paid tens of millions of dollars in investor-state lawsuits, it has yet to be sued by a mining company. So far the mere threat of lawsuits has convinced the government to open the doors wide to mining, no matter the industry\u2019s record on the environment or human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>\u201cIf they mistreat us, we sing and pray\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">That has left communities to face the mining companies on their own. Despite bullying and assassinations, many have valiantly resisted the theft of their lands and water. They haven\u2019t always prevailed, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">When the Reno-based Kappes, Cassiday &amp; Associates wanted to start a gold mine in San Jose del Golfo, just outside Guatemala\u2019s capital, villagers who lived around the mine entrance blocked the way, preventing the company from bringing heavy equipment to the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"686\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7-950x686.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4568\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7-950x686.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7-590x426.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7-768x555.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7-1536x1109.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_lapuya7.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Father Mario Absalom Alvarado, a Missionary of Sacred Heart priest, celebrates Mass with protestors along a rural road into a US-operated gold mine in La Puya, near San Jose del Golfo, Guatemala.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cIf the mine goes ahead, our rivers will dry up and the forests will disappear. Our communities will suffer or even cease to exist,\u201d said Teodora Oliva, one of the protestors. \u201cThe damage that the mine will bring is clear. But we old people are struggling to leave to our children a better world, not a world full of pollution. We\u2019ll be here opposing the mine as long as we need to be, with the Lord standing beside us, even though we know the personal risks for speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The struggle in San Jose del Golfo has been led by women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWomen have had greater protagonism than the men here because we\u2019re more patient. We unfortunately have been dealing with violence from men for a long time. So if the mine operators or the police mistreat us, we won\u2019t respond with violence. If they mistreat us, we sing and pray, or we just don\u2019t listen. And that bothers them,\u201d Ms. Oliva said. \u201cOur men at first wanted to solve things with violence. But that never solves anything. We\u2019ve seen that when resistance like ours follows a path of violence, people get hurt and killed and end up in prison. And nothing much changes. So they\u2019ve been learning from us women, and changing their way of thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">After the nonviolent protestors kept the mine entrance closed for more than two years, last May the riot police showed up in force. Although clanging church bells called more protestors to the site, the police succeeded in violently evicting villagers from the entrance to the mine. According to Jose Angel Llamas, a local activist, the protestors aren\u2019t planning on abandoning their vigil at the mine entrance, however. He says they maintain several legal actions aimed to force the mine to stop operations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cAlthough the transnational corporations and the government are aligned against us, we\u2019re here because there\u2019s a deep faith among the people. It keeps us struggling for the right to have clean water and a dignified life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Sidebar: Climate change provokes economic woes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Coffee has long been a central to Central American economies. The volcanic soils and high altitude slopes combine to produce a crop that gives work to a third of Guatemala\u2019s population. Coffee is 20 percent of Nicaragua\u2019s GDP. So when a tiny fungus started eating away at the green glossy leaves of the arabica bush three years ago, it was more than just farmers who panicked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The coffee rust fungus, <em>Hemileia vastatrix<\/em>, is a known hazard of growing arabica, which comprises 70 percent of the world\u2019s coffee production. Coffee rust cursed coffee growers since it appeared in east Africa 150 years ago. Yet Central American growers never worried about it much because the fungus cannot survive the cold temperatures and dry weather in the region\u2019s mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">And then came climate change. Warmer temperatures and wetter weather, and a shift in when rain falls, have wreaked havoc with crops in Central America. Severe drought provoked a drop in corn production, causing a rise in malnutrition. Coffee rust, which infected more than half of the farms in the region, lowered the harvest by 30 percent or more in every country. Small farmers were the most affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161-950x1379.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4566\" width=\"475\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161-950x1379.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161-590x856.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161-768x1115.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161-1058x1536.jpg 1058w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee161.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><figcaption><em>Juan Lopez Balan, a Kaqchikel Maya coffee farmer, displays a leaf that has been affected by coffee rust in San Martin Jilotepeque, Guatemala. Coffee rust, a fungus, has affected coffee farms throughout the region. This farm used heavy spraying of chemicals in an attempt to control the fungus.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In the short-term, the fungus has forced farmers to aggressively prune infected trees. Many have used chemicals, which are expensive and must be applied correctly and then later reapplied. Gladys Pappa, a small farmer in Guatemala, proudly grew organic coffee until the rust made her spray chemicals on her plants. \u201cIt was either spray or lose the plants entirely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The long-term prognosis is frightening. Unless scientists discover some magic cure for the disease, as much as 80 percent of the region\u2019s current coffee-growing areas could become unusable by 2050. That piles even more bad news on a region already reeling from climate woes. According to the Long-Term Climate Watch Index, prepared by Germanwatch, the three Northern Triangle countries all rank in the top ten of countries affected by climate change during the period 1993-2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">T<em>he Rev. Paul Jeffrey is a United Methodist missionary and senior correspondent for <\/em>response<em>. He lived for 20 years in Central America. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"950\" height=\"638\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362-950x638.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4567\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362-950x638.jpg 950w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362-590x396.jpg 590w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362-768x515.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362-1536x1031.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/guatemala_2014_jeffrey_coffee362.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption><em>Imelda Balan, a Kakchiquel Maya woman, picks ripe coffee beans in San Martin Jilotepeque, Guatemala. Coffee rust, a terrible plant fungus, has affected coffee farms throughout the region. This farm used heavy spraying of chemicals to control the fungus.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Paul Jeffrey Published in response magazine in April 2015. Vilma Maldonado\u2019s son Jesus left their home in Honduras in 2010. After a military coup the year before, gangs and police took turns terrorizing the town where they lived on the country\u2019s north coast. Jesus got death threats. With the country\u2019s murder rate among the [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4560"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4560"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4576,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4560\/revisions\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}