Trade, Violence and Migration: The Broken Promises to Honduran Workers

[think]

Report by the AFLCIO on conditions in Honduras:

Trade, Violence and Migration:
The Broken Promises to Honduran Workers

“What we witnessed was the intersection
of our corporate-dominated trade policies
with our broken immigration system
contributing
to a state that fails workers and
their families and forces them to live in fear....
The results are dangerous and serve as a
warning of what we cannot allow to continue.”
—Tefere Gebre
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President

Full report:
http://www.aflcio.org/content/download/147761/3770791/file/Honduras.PDF

Summarized here by the National Catholic Reporter:

Report: US trade and migration policies feed crisis in Honduras


By: Vinnie Rotondaro | Jan. 28, 2015

Washington

Failed trade and migration policies of the United States have exacerbated political problems in Honduras, leading to greater poverty and violence, says a recent report by the AFL-CIO.

The report identifies "two essential elements to understanding the current crisis" in Honduras, which is referred to in many media accounts as "the murder capital of the world" because of the extent of violence in society.

The two elements the report cites are:

"Recent political and economic developments" in the country, including a 2009 military coup d'état, which unseated a left-leaning government and unsettled a period of relative peace in Honduran society;
The "unfulfilled promise" of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

"In both these developments, U.S. policies play a major role," says the report from the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States....


Full article:
http://ncronline.org/news/global/report-us-trade-and-migration-policies-feed-crisis-honduras

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is an excellent report. I want to take the time needed to read all of it.

I noted a small side-bar summary which is very appropriate to refresh people's picture of how Honduras has been useful to the industrial/military complex in this country:

[center]The fate of Honduras long has been tied to
that of the United States, and the Honduran
government historically has received military
support from the United States. Throughout the
20th century, Honduras was key to maintaining
U.S. military and economic interests on the
isthmus. The U.S. military intervened in Honduran
politics throughout the early 20th century to protect
the foreign investments of large U.S. corporations
like the United Fruit Co. Later, Honduras served
as a base of operations during the U.S.-supported
1954 coup in Guatemala, as well as the 1961 Bay
of Pigs invasion, and during the years of civil war
and Cold War proxy wars in Central America in the
1970s and ’80s, the government provided support
for the “Contra” counter-revolutionary war against
the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.14[/center]

Very glad for the chance to read this information.

Thank you, think.