By Duane Campbell
Over the past several years and in particular since February of 2014, the number of children and families fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and arriving on the U.S. southwestern border has grown significantly. More than 57,000 children have arrived already this year. The majority of unaccompanied children and families come from a region of Central America known as the “Northern Triangle.”
The rise in violence in the sending countries has been significantly increased by U.S. policy, including tacit support for the coup in Honduras in 2009, direct military support for the war in El Salvador in the 1980′s and indirect support for the genocidal war by the Guatemalan oligarchy and the military against its own people in the 1980′s and 90′s, as well as the current uncontrolled U.S. drug market and the U.S.-directed drug war. The U.S. continues to contribute significantly to creating the crisis through our military and economic policies, creating more violence and narco-terrorism, as well as poverty and exploitation.
See the earlier report on this crisis by David Bacon here.
What should socialists do?
Source: Refugee Crisis on Our Border: What Can We Do now?
