Relatively little reporting has focused on the reasons why thousands of Central Americans are fleeing their homes in the first place.
As long as the root causes - including the major role the U.S. has and continues to play in the region’s pervasive violence, terror and systemic poverty - are not addressed, Central Americans will continue to flee and make the perilous trek north.
Legacy of U.S. intervention
The factors causing this migration are both historical and recent, but a persistent thread is the legacy of U.S. intervention. The U.S. was heavily involved in supporting the military, right-wing government and death squads in the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador during the 1980’s and 1990’s, which killed 200,000 and 75,000 respectively.
The Rise of Gangs
The legacy of the civil conflicts in Central America and the massive displacement they caused have contributed to the rise of criminal gangs. Today, high murder rates in the Northern Triangle are blamed on a war between two rival gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, both of which have their roots in the U.S. Because of government corruption, severe poverty and lack of opportunities, conditions were ripe for this exported gang culture to proliferate.
Political, social, and economic volatility
While home invasions, sexual assault, kidnapping, drug trafficking and petty crime levels are high, police forces are inadequately funded, trained and equipped. Government corruption and collusion means that the vast majority of crimes are not prosecuted.
Damaging trade agreements
Another factor driving the high rates of migration is the presence of transnational corporations and the trade agreements that facilitate their activities, include sweatshop economies which deny living wages to their workers.
To make matters worse, U.S. immigration policies continue to exacerbate all the factors driving people to leave the region. As U.S. citizens, we need to be better informed about our own country's contribution to this ongoing exodus and demand that their elected officials end the U.S. role in unfair trade practices, repressive regimes and border policies.
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