In recent weeks the news media has been saturating the airwaves and newspapers with stories about the thousands of unaccompanied minors crossing the US-Mexico border in South Texas. Most people who have offered an opinion on this situation agree that it is a humanitarian crisis and needs to be addresse d immediately. Some possible solutions that have been proposed include sending the children elsewhere in the country, so as to decongest the border area. Another suggestion is to send troops to the area to help “seal” the border. Governor Rick Perry’s administration recently decided to spend $1,300,000 a week to address the issue. I agree, like most people, that something needs to be done and soon. Before jumping to a conclusion about how to solve the problem, however, I think it is important to look at history so as to understand the root cause. In the early 1950s, a U.S. based fruit company cut a deal with the Honduran government in which they gained access to prime land on the north coast of the country where they planted their massive banana plantations, hiring the land owners, whom they deceived into selling their property, at slave wages. Their living conditions were worse than deplorable. Many of these peasants died of malaria. Health care was non-existent, and when one worker died his family was expelled from the shack where they lived, and another peasant was there to take his place. The same fruit company tried to do the same thing next door in Guatemala. Here, however, the president said no. At this, John Dulles, the Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration, told the President that Guatemala’s president, freely and democratically elected Jacobo Arbanz, was a communist and needed to be taken out, which the CIA promptly did. This act unleashed a thirty-six year civil war in Guatemala, in which thousands of indigenous people were slaughtered throughout the country side. More recently, Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, stated before a Congressional sub-committee, that the Guatemalan farmers can compete with U.S. farmers, but they cannot compete with the U.S. Treasury Department. Tons of heavily subsidized grain from the United States are dumped on the Guatemalan market (as well as on other markets) making it almost impossible for the Guatemalan farmer to sell his grain. It is actually too expensive to even plant given the competition on the part of the U.S. treasury. Our history in El Salvador is not much different. During their twelve year civil war (1979-1992), we trained countless young people to fight against the FMLN, the guerrilla faction that was attempting to take over the country. When the war was finally over, many of these young soldiers migrated to Los Angeles, where they ultimately formed gangs, specifically the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18. In Los Angeles they continued the life style they had learned in their home country, namely how to kill. When any of these new immigrants was arrested for murder or any other felony – and there were many – they were deported back to El Salvador where the gang quickly took root and thrives to this day. Young people, today, who live in the poorer parts of the city, basically have two options: join the gang or leave the country. Given these situations, is it any wonder that we are being inundated with thousands of young people leaving their home countries, looking for a place in the world where they can have a life, a family and live in peace? Unfortunately, we do not seem capable of considering our own role in the root cause of this very serious problem. We think that by building taller fences and sending more troops to the area the problem will simply go away. Whether we have the courage to admit it or not, we have a moral obligation to deal with these young people in a charitable way.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:03:00 +0000
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