It’s Time To Pressure Corrupt Central American Elites To End The Border Crisis

1. Corruption affects almost every area of society in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and helps fuel the violence and poverty that migrants say is driving them to seek protection in the United States.
2. The fact is, the border crisis is being fueled above all by poverty and corruption in Central America, and as long as those things persist, Central American families will have a powerful incentive to head north and seek a better life in the United States—by any means necessary.
3. A 2016 purge—prompted by pressure from the United States—resulted in the firing of more than a third of the nation’s 13,500 police officers, including all 40 of the highest-ranking officers, “dismissed because they were suspected of being criminals, didn’t pass a polygraph or were incapable of doing the job.” Gangs like MS-13 and 18th Street Gang are sending some of their members to school to become doctors and lawyers, others to the police academy to become officers.
4. The pact, for what it’s worth, stipulates that Hondurans and Salvadorans, as well as migrants from other countries, have to apply for asylum in Guatemala, and be denied, before being eligible to apply for asylum in the United States.
5. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales initially didn’t want to sign the pact, which will force migrants passing through Guatemala en route to the United States to seek asylum first in Guatemala.
6. But if we’re serious about solving the border crisis, safe third country pacts aren’t nearly as important as forcing Central American elites to tackle corruption, organized crime, and drug cartels.
7. But it shows that the Trump administration has real leverage over Central American elites who run what are essentially failed states, and that putting pressure on them can get them to do things they don’t want to do.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/31/time-put-pressure-corrupt-central-american-elites-end-border-crisis/