Tegucigalpa, July 18 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The United States' proposed $1 billion Alliance for Prosperity plan for Central America won't do anything to resolve the root causes of migration in the region, warned an international humanitarian mission on Friday after investigating the plight of returned migrants in Honduras.
While the Alliance for Prosperity's proposed security initiatives for Central America's Northern Triangle are touted as helping to confront the crisis of migration that saw tens of thousands of child migrants flee poverty and violence in their countries and enter the U.S. in 2014, humanitarian observers have serious doubts about the plan.
According to the head of the mission Leticia Gutierrez, who works with Central American migrants in Mexico, the U.S.-funded Alliance for Prosperity initiative is “a populist, palliative response” that will not solve the “acute situation” in Central American countries.
“Prosperity for whom?” asked Gutierrez rhetorically, calling the plan a mockery and an insult that will aid Central American governments in consolidating their control over their people. While the people in Central American countries suffer “hunger, lack of dignified work opportunities, and insecurity,” it is the elite who enjoy prosperity, Guiterrez added.
The proposed $1 billion in the so-called development programs for 2016 focused on Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, also known as the Northern Triangle, would approximately triple the current U.S. funding level in Central America. The total funds include sums slated for promoting trade and employment, tackling organized crime, and strengthening institutions.
The humanitarian delegation, made up of Mexican and Guatemalan religious leaders among others, condemned the plan for promoting a model of development and employment generation focused on mega-projects that displace communities and rob indigenous peoples of land titles, destroy the environment, undermine food security and sovereignty, and deteriorate traditional ways of life, which all contribute to conditions that force migration.
While specifics of the Alliance for Prosperity remain unclear, the security proposal would include training and equipping police, something the U.S. has done in the region for decades without a significant curb in violence, crime, or corruption. The plan is expected to pave the way for increased militarization in the name of “stabilization” in the region and exacerbate problems underlying social and economic inequality while rewarding governments with dismal human rights records with increased funding.
