US & Canadian-backed Guatemalan regime uses violence against thousands of refugees fleeing violence and desperation of US & Canadian-backed Honduran regime →

Thousands of Hondurans were met with Guatemalan military violence as they flee systemic repression, corruption and impoverishment of the narco-military Honduran regime, a “democratic allie” of United States and Canada since the June 28, 2009 military coup ousted Honduras’ last democratic government … an illegal regime change coup supported by the US and Canada.

Photo: @belizepolitics

Photo: @belizepolitics

"The phenomenon of the caravans is the desperate expression of a population that can no longer bear its situation of anguish and uncertainty, and that in these times has reached its extremes of hunger and unemployment with the COVID pandemic, the passage of hurricanes ETA and IOTA, plus the uncontrolled corruption of the nucleus of elites that control the State. All this is a pressure cooker in a country where the government has abandoned all social public services, replacing them with minimal ‘populist’ assistance programs that doing nothing but show contempt for the majority population." (Radio Progreso y ERIC (Honduras), Jan.16, 2021
https://radioprogresohn.net/np/las-caravanas-protesta-muda-de-un-pueblo-que-incomoda-2/)

Photo: @BelizePolitics

Photo: @BelizePolitics

Military-backed regime violence against people fleeing military-backed regime violence
Guatemalan reporter Jody Garcia and TeleSUR English tweeted films showing how the US and Canadian-backed military-regime of Guatemala is violently trying to force desperate Hondurans to stay in the very conditions forcing them to flee.

No reporting on responsibility of US, Canada and transnational companies
There continues to be little to no reporting about policies of the United States, Canada, other actors in the “international community” and the business operations and investments of transnational companies, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, that for decades have both caused and benefited from the conditions of government repression and corruption, extreme exploitation and poverty, that force tens of thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans to flee every year.

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It is tiring and yet still astonishing to read, month after month, media reports about the forced migrancy situation and read not a single explanation about how the United States, Canada and other actors in the so-called international community, maintain full and beneficial economic, political and military relations with the very regimes and economic elites in Guatemala and Honduras responsible for the conditions forcing people to flee.

The challenges remain the same
Humanitarian support and legal work must be prioritized to support refugees and forced migrants.

Equally important, work and activism must increase in the United States and Canada (and the media):

  • to ensure much more public discussion about the underlying causes of forced migrancy from countries like Honduras and Guatemala, and US and Canadian public and private sector policies contribute to this;

  • to increase consumer awareness work so that Canadian and U.S. citizens take responsibility for where our products come from, and in what conditions they are produced;

  • to hold our governments accountable when their policies contribute to exploitation and destitution, violence, corruption and impunity in Honduras, Guatemala (and elsewhere);

  • to hold our companies and investors accountable when their business operations contribute to and profit from exploitation and destitution, repression, corruption and impunity in Honduras, Guatemala (and elsewhere).

“Economic migrants” are refugees
There is a long-overdue challenge to work related to forced migrancy and refugee rights. One is repeatedly told that “economic migrants” cannot apply for political asylum. Yet in many regions of the world, particularly in exploited, abused countries of the global south (such as Honduras and Guatemala), the global economy is imposed illegally and violently on vast numbers of impoverished, destitute people. The violence, poverty and destitution caused by the global economy are life-threatening conditions, are political violence.

(Grahame Russell is director of Rights Action and part-time adjunct professor at University of Northern British Columbia. @RightsAction, grahame@rightsaction.org)

Rights Action (US & Canada)
Since 1995, Rights Action funds human rights, environment and territory defense struggles in Guatemala and Honduras; funds victims of repression and human rights violations, health harms and natural disasters; works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from repression and human rights violations, environmental harms and forced evictions, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.

Act – Stir up the pot – Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family, friends and your networks, to politicians and media – asking ‘Why do our governments, companies and investment firms benefit from and turn a blind eye to poverty, repression and violence, environmental and health harms that caused the forced migrancy / refugee crisis in Guatemala and Honduras?’

Other solidarity/ NGO groups in U.S. and Canada