Editor’s note: This commentary is by Andrew Torre, who gave up his life as a New York City advertising writer 20 years ago and moved to Londonderry, where he is now retired. He writes progressive political commentary, which has appeared regularly in Vermont newspapers. He is a member of the Vermont Progressive Party and MoveOn Manchester.
[W]hile the media focuses on immigration – particularly the atrocity of separating children from their immigrant parents – none of it puts the issue into historical context. That’s unfortunate, since unveiling that history makes a bad situation even more condemnable.
We’re told that the bulk of immigrants are coming up through Mexico from the Central American “triangle” comprising El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. What we are not told is why – and therein lie more U.S. abominations. In 1951, after years of authoritarian rule, Jacabo Arbenz became the second democratically elected president of Guatemala. He immediately implemented a land-reform policy that would rescue an oppressed, indigent and landless peasantry. This ran afoul of the U.S. United Fruit Co. that “owned” huge swaths of Guatemala. A lawyer for UFC and a member of its board of directors, was Allen Dulles, brother of the U.S. secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, during the Eisenhower administration. Claiming “communist influence” in Guatemala, they arranged a successful coup against Arbenz in 1954, replacing him with a military dictator, and condemning Guatemala to authoritarian rule and struggle against it for decades to come. One such U.S.-supported dictator, Rios Montt, led a massive genocide of indigenous people in the late 1980s. It is probable that over 200,000 people died in the Guatemalan conflict. With the progressive movement of Arbenz seemingly forever stalled, the Guatemalan people have been suffering ever since. Hence their migration.
El Salvador – apparent source of today’s notorious MS-13 gangs that formed in California – is another victim of disastrous U.S. policy. In the 1980s, the progressive Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), was waging war against an entrenched junta. The U.S., branding the FMLN “communist,” militarily supported the junta and the far-right Arena Party led by Roberto D’Aubuisson, who also headed death squads responsible for the murders of, among thousands of others, Catholic Archbishop Caesar Romero and several nuns who championed the Liberation Theology movement opposing authoritarian governance. It is estimated that at least 75,000 Salvadorans died during the conflict. The country, steeped in poverty that might have been somewhat allayed had the progressive forces prevailed, has not only never recovered, but conditions have worsened – thanks to the USA.
Honduras is the third country in the triangle of migrants created by U.S. policy. A poor country historically exploited for its mahogany forests, and governed by a land-owning elite, it elected Manuel Zelaya as its president in 2006. He embarked on an aggressive progressive agenda that included land redistribution favoring the peasants, and that reduced poverty by 10 percent. After two years in office, the angry elite kidnapped him from his home, put him on a plane, exiled him to Costa Rica, and placed one of their own in the president’s seat. The 21 members of the Organization of American States (OAS) called this a coup and did not recognize the new government. The U.S. did. Since then, Honduras has become a model of corruption: It’s the conduit for illegal drugs moving into the U.S., and the Honduran government is in the business; the elite is grabbing back the land distributed to the peasants, desperately impoverishing them once more; and any objectors are extra-legally killed with impunity. Any wonder why people are fleeing?
These are the tragic victims of U.S. policy that Trump is calling “vermin,” while taking their children from them. Can any decent American aware of these facts be more ashamed of his country?