New Internationalist – September 2019

In the News

healthcare and education,
and that dissent is brutally
repressed. Doctors, nurses,
teachers and students who
recently mobilized against
a proposed privatization
bill were met with teargas,
baton charges and mass
detentions. State resources
are increasingly diverted to
militarization.
By contrast, the Western
political class shines its lights
full-beam on a crisis of similar
magnitude in Venezuela
because it is ideologically
opposed to Venezuela’s
President Nicolás Maduro
and keen to install another
US-backed leader, Juan
Guaidó, in his place.

Honduras is an old story

with a new plot. It’s a country

rich in minerals, with a coffee,

fruit, sugar-cane and textiles

industry, where almost 70 per

cent of people live in poverty.

Gang violence and the drug

trade contribute to one of the

world’s highest murder rates –

almost always in the top three,

along with El Salvador.

US policy claims to

be working towards ‘the

wellbeing and security of the

Honduran people’ but does

exactly the opposite. Under

President Trump, the US has

vowed to cut off aid that was

worth $181 million in 2017. His

plan to deport undocumented

workers will affect 60 per cent

of the one million Hondurans

in the US. Remittances from

Hondurans abroad account

for a fifth of their home

country’s GDP.

All these measures set new

caravans in motion.

RAHILA GUPTA

The view from above: Hondurans

last year taking part in a caravan

heading towards the US border. US

policy toward Honduras will set

new caravans in motion.

PEDRO PARDO/AFP/GETTY

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 11