The real reasons people are fleeing Honduras [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Let's get beyond the overused trope of 'violence and poverty'
Posted 24 January 2020 11:16 GMT



A mother named Doris holds a portrait of her son, Wilfredo Moncada, a former leader of anti-government protests in 2018. Choluteca, Honduras, May 29, 2019. Photo credit: Martín Cálix for Contraccoriente. Used with permission.



According to the government of Guatemala, between January 15 and 16, 2020, more than 3,500 people crossed the border into that country on foot, in the eventual hope of building a new life in the United States or Mexico. The majority of them were from Honduras. According to reporting by international media such as NPR, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters, the people migrating across Central American are fleeing “poverty and violence”—but these terms barely scratch the surface of why people choose to hitchhike for thousands of miles and face an uncertain future at the U.S.-Mexico border.

A New Caravan
Hondurans have been fleeing their country for years, but the term “caravan” was popularized worldwide in 2018, when more than 10,000 Central Americans traveled together to mutually support and protect each other on the road through Guatemala and Mexico.

More than living in “poverty and violence,” Hondurans are in fact engulfed in a narco-state whose leadership is supported by the United States. They suffer from widespread corruption, gender violence, gang control, land-grabs, and drought driven by climate change.

. . .

Now President Hernández, who has been lauded by the U.S. Drugs and Enforcement Agency for his fight against drug-trafficking, is himself under scrutiny for his alleged role in the cocaine business.

During Tony Hernández's trial, witnesses asserted that the president tried to protect his brother from extradition and received millions of dollars worth of bribes to fund his party's political campaigns, according to reports from The New York Times and Reuters. President Hernández denies the allegations.

More:
https://globalvoices.org/2020/01/24/the-real-reasons-people-are-fleeing-honduras/