Seven Reasons to Scrap the USA’s $1 Billion Aid Package to Central America
July 06, 2015
Why Biden's Plan will Only Deepen the Misery of Central America’s Poor
Seven Reasons to Scrap the USA’s $1 Billion Aid Package to Central America
by ADRIENNE PINE, RICHARD JOHNSTON, FIONA WILMOT, et al.
This summer, Congress will decide whether to support the $1 billion aid package to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Prompted by the surge of children and family to the US’s southern border last year, the “Strategy for Engagement in Central America” aims to attack the ‘root causes’ of unauthorized migration.
Promoted by Vice-President Biden, the plan has been endorsed by commentators across the political spectrum.
Biden’s plan would invest in border security, law enforcement, economic development, and the UN’s new human rights initiatives in the region. These measures will purportedly keep Central Americans at home, busy with new jobs in safer communities under more transparent, responsive governments. At the same time, tighter border enforcement is intended to discourage migration.
What’s the likelihood that US aid will achieve these outcomes?
We are a group of social scientists*, each of us with decades of research experience with the very populations targeted in Biden’s plan. We are painfully aware that Central America’s rural and urban poor need support. This past April, we met in Chicago and discussed the aid package’s likely impacts.
Our conclusion? Biden’s package is guaranteed to deepen—not alleviate—the problems faced by Central America’s poor majority.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/06/seven-reasons-to-scrap-the-usas-1-billion-aid-package-to-central-america/
