Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 22 June 2018

Violence keeps Central Americans coming to US despite Trump

By MARCOS ALEMAN phisticated and extortion
JOSHUA GOODMAN rackets proliferated from
Associated Press behind bars.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salva- In rural areas and cities
dor (AP) — Nightfall in El alike, the threat of violence
Salvador's capital was fast is never far away, even
approaching and Ernesto though homicide rates in
Pena was waiting for a bus the three countries have
that never arrived. His work fallen from their peaks. Just
day delivering rice and entering certain neighbor-
cooking oil to street ven- hoods in San Salvador re-
dors in the bustling district quires paying a bribe to
of Santa Tecla had ended youth lookouts. Last year,
and like most people he 35 bus drivers, passengers
was anxious to get home and fare collectors were
before the gangs that con- killed while riding buses into
trol the poor neighborhood gang-controlled neighbor-
where he lives enforce an hoods, while those that
informal curfew. were spared a bullet were
For years, he and his wife extorted to the tune of $19
have been saving what million, according to the
they can on their combined Salvadoran public trans-
$700-a-month income to In this March 15, 2017 file vendors watch forensic workers investigate the scene of a shootout in port owners' association.
one day pay smugglers to San Salvador, El Salvador. The sense of helplessness
ferry them and their 8-year- Associated Press is one reason the number
old son to what they hope of families with children at-
will be a safer future in the administration's policy of groups fleeing poverty. rapidly expanded after tens tempting to cross into the
U.S. But the searing im- "zero tolerance" toward il- "This isn't about immigrants of thousands of suspected U.S. has also been spiking
ages displayed across lo- legal immigrants. chasing the American gang members, mainly Sal- even as overall illegal mi-
cal newspapers this week The rate of violent death dream anymore," said So- vadorans, were deported gration hovers near a two-
of children held in fenced in El Salvador is still higher fia Martinez, a Guatemala- back to their countries of decade low.
cages after being separat- than all countries suffering based analyst for the Inter- origin in the 1990s, only to Following Trump's inaugura-
ed from their parents at the armed conflict except for national Crisis Group and find limited job prospects tion, the number of Central
U.S.-Mexico border has led Syria, with a murder rate author of a recent report and stigmatization for their Americans passing through
the 30-year-old to rethink of 99.7 per 100,000 inhab- on gang violence in Cen- criminal pasts and out-of- Mexico to the U.S. sharp-
his plans to journey north- itants in 2016, according tral America, "Mafia of the place "Spanglish." ly dropped on fears that
ward. to the most recent global Poor." "At first they would just fight Trump's caustic rhetoric
"We've always thought study by the Switzerland- "It's about escaping a among each other, whip- could translate into more
about going but we based Small Arms Survey. death sentence," she said. ping each other with belts. abuse and deportations,
haven't been able to scav- The number of people dis- President Donald Trump's But now they have guns combined with enhanced
enge together enough placed in the nation of 6.5 crackdown on illegal mi- and bullets," said Carmen enforcement begun under
money," said Pena, look- million by turf battles be- grants could end up wors- Siguenza, 52, who sent her the Obama administration.
ing around nervously out of tween the country's two ening the security and two children, now in their But what migration experts
fear a gang lookout might biggest gangs, MS-13 and economic situation in Cen- 20s, to live in the U.S. when like to call the "Trump ef-
spot him talking to a jour- Barrio 18, skyrocketed last tral America, Martinez said, they were teenagers so fect" appears to be fading
nalist. "And now we have to year to 296,000, according leading even more people they wouldn't be recruited as the U.S. economy purrs
think about this," he added, to the Norwegian Refugee to flee in the future. Earlier by the gangs. She and her at near full employment
referring to what he worries Council. this year, he ended tem- husband have thought levels and the criminal net-
could be a cruel reception In neighboring Hondu- porary protected status about joining them many works that take migrants
if he manages to reach the ras, one of Latin America's for 57,000 Hondurans and times, but in the wake of across the border adapt.
U.S. poorest and most violent 200,000 Salvadoran im- Trump's crackdown she's So far this year, the number
Still, thousands are pressing nations, adding to the migrants, some of whom now afraid that she would of apprehensions along the
on. The number of families sense of insecurity is the have been living in the U.S. get caught. Mexican border has risen
entering the U.S. illegally country's role as a ma- for decades. If deported, "If I were younger, I wouldn't every month, and in May
at the southwest border jor transit point for South they'll return to countries ill- think twice about leaving reached 40,344 — still a
jumped six-fold in May to American cocaine as well equipped to absorb them because it's the youth the far cry from the record lev-
9,485 compared with the as the political turmoil and and generating too few gangs bother, not us older els seen in 2000 but almost
same month in 2017. Since civil unrest that have fol- jobs to provide opportuni- folks," she said. three times what it was a
October, more than 58,000 lowed hard-line President ties to work. Iron-fisted policing tactics year ago.
have arrived, the bulk from Juan Orlando Hernandez's The violence driving so have only exacerbated More than 2,300 minors
Guatemala, followed by re-election last November many people from their the carnage without ad- have been separated
Honduras and El Salvador. amid allegations he stole homes has been emerging dressing the underlying so- from their parents since
Feelings of desperation and the vote. for decades. cial ills contributing to the April, when the Trump ad-
impotence are being felt In Guatemala — the third of Civil wars that engulfed the gangs' expansion. Hondu- ministration launched its
throughout Central Ameri- the so-called Northern Tri- region during the Cold War ras in 2002 even called its "zero-tolerance" policy that
ca, where the lawlessness, angle countries of Central left a legacy of weak insti- crackdown a name Trump called for prosecuting il-
endemic poverty and lev- America — criminal activity tutions that criminals have himself would come to em- legal immigrants and tak-
els of gang violence akin to is also spreading, adding been quick to exploit. The brace: "Zero Tolerance." ing their children away. On
war zones that have driven to the discrimination and gangs themselves were When thousands of gang Wednesday, Trump abrupt-
so many families from their abuse long faced by the formed in rough Los An- members were thrown into ly reversed himself and
homes show little signs of indigenous communities geles neighborhoods as a jail, their leadership struc- signed an executive order
abating, despite the Trump that are among the largest form of self-protection and tures become more so- halting the practice.q