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This is a must-read statement by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández' clear and concise commentary made during his visit in Washington this past week. Selected quotes:
I would expect that that the electoral politics that
are playing right now will not affect a decision that has to do with
tending to a humanitarian crisis.
If you take a map of the municipalities where drugs pass, and overlay a
map of the municipalities where the kids are coming, they match
perfectly.
The advantage that you
have here—if you can call it an advantage—is that the violence has been
separated from the transit of drugs. That’s why for many officials and
public servants the drug problem in the United States is one of public
health. In Central America, the drug problem is life or death. That’s
why it’s important that the United States assume its responsibility.
If they are only investing in border security and not in the
source of the problem, in the genesis of the problem, then we will have
more of the same.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández came to Washington this
week with just about the toughest hand a world leader can play: His
tiny, impoverished country is both very dependent on what happens here
in the United States and more or less without leverage to shape it. The
only leverage, in fact, that Honduras and its small, equally troubled
neighbors Guatemala and El Salvador have found recently has come in the
form of small children, tens of thousands of whom have clambered over
the U.S. border this year in numbers so large and so unexpected they’ve
created an immigration crisis that, at the least, has succeeded in
placing Central America’s plague of drugs, violence and poverty on the
Washington agenda in a way it wouldn’t have been otherwise. That said,
it’s still not clear what, if anything, will come of the new state of
affairs—at least not when it comes to Honduras, so deadly that its city
of San Pedro Sula has been dubbed “the murder capital of the world” and
so politically troubled that Washington hardly blinked when its elected
president was toppled in a coup a few years back. Politico Magazine editor
Susan Glasser met with President Hernández Friday—and found a leader
deeply skeptical about the United States, from its refusal to
acknowledge the role our own demand for drugs has had in creating his
country’s cycle of violence, to our poor record of delivering
significant aid. Their edited conversation, translated from Spanish by Politico reporter Jose DelReal, follows.
***
Susan Glasser:
Mr. President, we’re in crisis mode here in Washington over this
question of the border. And in particular the plight of the children
coming to the United States unaccompanied has captured the public’s
attention. But the politics of this is, to be blunt, a disaster. There’s
no real sense that we have solutions, or even that President Obama can
win passage for his proposed $3.7 billion plan to deal with the crisis,
and I’m curious what you most want to say to the president and to the
politicians here in Washington. How much responsibility do they have for
this crisis?
President Hernández:
First, I would like to tell leaders in Washington: A Central America
with violence caused by drugs, a Central America without opportunities, a
Central America that doesn’t have space for economic growth at the rate
the population needs, will be an enormous cost and an enormous danger
to the United States. On the contrary, a Central America in peace, a
Central America that is prosperous, a Central American with economic
growth, a Central America where violence is controlled, is a great
investment for the United States. It is a great benefit, not a cost.
Now,
how to do that? That’s through shared responsibility. The United States
is responsible, Central America is responsible, and Mexico is
responsible. We have assumed our commitment [as in “responsibility”]
and our visit today requires talking with leaders in Washington and
structuring a plan dividing that responsibility. And I think that, until
now, what we’ve been talking about with congressional leaders is moving
on a good path. I would expect that that the electoral politics that
are playing right now will not affect a decision that has to do with
tending to a humanitarian crisis. When we talk about the children [on
the border], they are human beings. Human beings who are in a difficult
situation. In that sense, I would expect that the electoral debate
doesn’t affect [the response].
SG: There’s been a
big debate about who’s responsible for the influx of children coming
here: how much is a result of confusion around U.S. law. You think that
that does affect the children coming?
JH: That does.The problem is that that ambiguity, that lack of clarity, is used by coyotes [traffickers]
to perversely deceive the families that are here, telling them that
they can bring their kids and that their entry can be resolved legally
later. But another problem is that they deceive the people in Central
America, telling them, “take kids to the border and they’ll be received
and admitted,” when we know that’s not true.
That confusion is due to a lack of clarity, but there’s
another important cause in relation to Honduras. If you take a map of
the municipalities where drugs pass, and overlay a map of the
municipalities where the kids are coming, they match perfectly.
SG: San Pedro Sula [the Honduran city that is the murder capital of the world] is where most of the people are coming from.
JH: Exactly. But another side of it is the trafficking of dollars, payment for the drugs.
SG: Your
point is that the United States is responsible for creating the demand
for the drugs—and the violence that it has caused in the country—that we
have not accepted really our share of the responsibility for that.
JH: We
all share responsibility, from those who produce the drug to the
transit countries, but also the country that uses the drugs. And the
United States is the great consumer of the drugs. The advantage that you
have here—if you can call it an advantage—is that the violence has been
separated from the transit of drugs. That’s why for many officials and
public servants the drug problem in the United States is one of public
health. In Central America, the drug problem is life or death. That’s
why it’s important that the United States assume its responsibility.
They fixed the problem in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, separating
the violence from drug trafficking, or at least controlling the
violence.
SG: Your foreign minister was
interviewed on NPR and said that it’s “outrageous” that the United
States has spent so much money on border security and so little money
helping Honduras and the other countries of the Northern Triangle. Do
you agree with that? What should the United States be doing to assist
Honduras more directly?
JH: I return to my
point. A Central America at peace, with less drug violence, and with
opportunities, is a great investment for the United States. On the
contrary, if they are only investing in border security and not in the
source of the problem, in the genesis of the problem, then we will have
more of the same.
SG: And is that an outrage that we have our priorities so wrong?
JH: I
would say that it’s a miscalculation. Of course for us it’s
uncomfortable and frustrating knowing that our neighbor isn’t doing its
part.
SG: President Obama has proposed this 3.7
billion dollar package, and even then it’s not clear whether Congress
will actually approve that. Only a small amount, something like $300
million, is supposed to go directly to the countries in the region. Is
there some more concrete form of assistance that would stop this flood
of migrants?
JH: There was an initiative by the
name of CARSI (Central America Regional Security Initiative) that all
the countries of South America and the Caribbean see as a practical
joke. In Guatemala many years back it was said that there would be an
enormous investment in this same problem, the violence. Almost $3
billion. Practically nothing has arrived. And so we don’t want to be deceived again.
SG: So you’re skeptical based on history?
JH: Yes.
SG: Honduras
is a small country. It must be very painful for you to be the president
of what people call the murder capital of the world. Do you see any
prospect for not having that be the thing that you’re number one in?
JH: We
are working on that. And we are working hard. We have some
improvements. But we have a lot more to do. It is not enough. That is
the reason we need help. Help from the people who demand this
consumption of drugs.
We're not neighbors. Try a geography class, idiot.
ReplyDeleteNo somos vecinos. Prueba una clase de geografía, idiota.