Overlooking Bogota Photo: Anna Vogt
Study: Migrant minors’ rights systematically violated in CentAm, U.S., Mexico
The study notes a lack of attention to the causes of migration, including violence, social exclusion and poverty, and the priority accorded to immigration control measures in lieu of the children’s interests, the absence of reintegration programs for repatriated kids and the lack of regional agreements and policies based on human rights and development.
The Case for Aid to Central America
It will take far more than $1 billion in American aid to accomplish those goals. But an infusion of aid would give the United States more leverage in pressing Central American leaders to take initial steps, some of which would come at a political cost domestically. It also would most likely lead to stronger cooperation on other critical transnational problems like drug trafficking, criminal networks and climate change. Having greater influence in the region, which continues to reel from the repercussions of American military interventions in the 1980s, would be sensible at a time when Russia and China are making significant economic inroads in Latin America.
Obama’s Central American Rescue Plan Will Only Make Life There Worse
“Obviously the neoliberal program was not structured to reduce poverty, or to generate employment, or so that there would be no migrants,” Guatemalan researcher Luis Solano wrote in an email interview. “But the public discourse was that of the famous ‘trickle down policy,’ a trickle down that never arrived except to the handful who benefited.” Far from providing new opportunities for regular people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the measures proposed in the Alliance for Prosperity are likely to worsen the social and economic realities for the region’s poor majority. This is likely to lead Central Americans—adults and children alike—to continue to seek out survival by heading north.
Mexico deports record numbers of women and children in US-driven effort
Record numbers of women and children fleeing violence and poverty in Central America were deported by Mexican authorities last year, as part of US-driven operations to stem the flow of migrants reaching the American border. More than 24,000 women were deported from Mexico in 2014 – double the number sent home in 2013. The upsurge in child detentions was even sharper – climbing 230% to just over 23,000, Mexican interior ministry figures reveal.
Honduras: A Government Failing to Protect its People
In December 2014 the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) and Center for International Policy (CIP) traveled to Honduras to investigate how the country is responding to the needs of its citizens. What we found was a security apparatus and criminal justice system in desperate need of reform and a population with little faith in its government. Issues of violence, impunity, and corruption that have plagued the country for years are intensifying.
Man lynched in Dominican Republic as tensions run high
The death of the man came just hours after a group of Dominicans in Santiago, the country’s second-largest city, publicly burned the Haitian flag. Elsewhere, human rights groups have reported that a man was recently denied access to a public bus because he “looked Haitian”. Anti-Haitian sentiment has been on the rise in the Dominican Republic since a 2013 court ruling, which denied children of Haitian migrants their citizenship retroactive to 1930, leaving tens of thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent stateless and at risk of being deported.
Haitians demand lower fuel prices in mass protests
At least 6,000 protesters have marched through Haiti’s capital to demand lower fuel prices and the ouster of President Michel Martelly. The protest in Port-au-Prince on Saturday remained peaceful overall although police briefly threw tear gas and dispersed a crowd that had burned rubbish and tyres in the street to block traffic.
Farc invites Miss Universe to assist in negotiation of peace deal with Colombia
Whoever wears the Miss Universe crown can expect to be invited to star-studded cocktail parties, balls, charity events and galas. The newly crowned Miss Universe, however, has been given a different kind of invitation. Leftist Farc rebels, from Pauline Vega’s native Colombia, want her to visit them in Havana, where they are trying to negotiate a peace deal with the Colombian government.
Historic Commission releases report on causes of Colombia conflict
A commission of 12 Colombian historians presented their account on the origins, causes, aggravators and consequences of Colombia’s 50-year long armed conflict on Tuesday. The document lies the foundation for determining responsibility for the nearly 7 million victims.