Trump To Cut Central America Aid As Migrant Caravan Rolls On
US President
Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White
House on August 16, 2018 in Washington, DC.
MANDEL NGAN / AFP
MANDEL NGAN / AFP
President
Donald Trump said Monday the United States will start cutting aid to Guatemala,
Honduras and El Salvador as a caravan of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants
rolled on regardless toward the US border.
The United
Nations said more than 7,000 people were now heading toward the United States,
as more migrants joined the original group, including some Central Americans
who were already in Mexico.
Trump
meanwhile kept up his almost-daily Twitter attacks on the approaching caravan,
calling it a national emergency, and saying he had alerted the US border patrol
and military.
“We will now
begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid” that the
United States provides to the three Central American countries, said the
president – who has seized upon the crisis in the run-up to US midterm
elections, reviving the immigrant-bashing rhetoric that helped get him elected
in 2016.
Mexican
authorities had managed to block the migrants on the Mexico-Guatemala border
after they burst through a series of barriers on the Guatemalan side on Friday.
But many later crossed the river below in makeshift rafts before marching
north.
The caravan
resumed its journey Monday in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, setting
out from Tapachula, near the border, for the town of Huixtla, around 40
kilometers (25 miles) away.
Many of the
migrants had spent the night on the town square or the street, wary of the
shelters set up by charities and the government. Moving in a massive ebb and
flow, they set out on foot or hitched rides with passing cars and trucks.
“Sadly, it
looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading
to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle
Easterners are mixed in,” Trump said in one tweet.
“I have
alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy (sic). Must
change laws!”
Political
overtones
Activists
say the journey of at least 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) through Mexico to
the US border could take a month.
“We’re a
little afraid the police could detain us. But if they deport us, we’ll just try
again,” said Noemi Bobadilla, 39, a cleaner from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
She had already
been walking for 13 days, with a friend and her baby.
Rights
activists accused Mexico of mistreating the migrants.
Several
groups accused the Mexican government in a statement of “arbitrary detentions”
and “grave human rights violations” for detaining migrants who tried to enter
the country legally and file asylum claims.
Other
activists accused Trump of using the caravan to score political points.
“Trump isn’t
afraid of the caravan, Trump is using the caravan to win Congress,” said Irineo
Mujica, an activist who helped organize another caravan that also infuriated
Trump in April.
US Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo, however, denounced the “apparent political motivation of
some organizers of the caravan.”
About a
thousand migrants, including women and children, were still stranded on a
border bridge hoping to enter Mexico legally via Guatemala.
Mexican
authorities insisted those on the bridge would have to file asylum claims one
at a time in order to enter the country.
A separate
group of about 1,000 Hondurans started their own march across Guatemala, headed
for Mexico and then the United States. The group of men, women and children
gathered in Esquipulas before setting out on foot.
Declining
aid
The caravan
left San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras more than a week ago.
It had
comprised between 3,000 and 5,000 people at various times as it moved through
Guatemala, according to various sources.
The
International Organization for Migration now estimates it comprises just under
7,250 people, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
Around 900
migrants — tired of waiting on the bridge — resorted to crossing the Suchiate
River below on makeshift rafts and police did not intervene as they clambered
up the muddy riverbank on the Mexican side on Saturday.
Many of the
migrants are fleeing poverty and insecurity in Honduras, where powerful street
gangs rule their turf with brutal violence.
With a
homicide rate of 43 per 100,000 citizens, Honduras is one of the most violent
countries in the world, according to a Honduran university study.
US aid to
Honduras had already been on the decline.
It went from
$209.2 million in 2016 to $181.7 million last year, according to the Washington
Office on Latin America.
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