Honduras: Caravan Of The Damned

Written by Econintersect Guest

— this post authored by Danica Jorden, Open Democracy

Recent hurricanes come on top of a desperate economic situation and push more Hondurans northwards, Yet the US aid to Central America is still being vetoed by Donald Trump, who faces his last days in office.

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More than 500 people who lost everything in hurricanes Eta and Iota left the San Pedro Sula bus station in Hondouras on Thursday, December 10, 2020. The self-named “Caravan of the Victims” hopes to be able to walk, hitchhike, ride or somehow make it to Mexico, and then to the United States. Other groups are organizing to leave Honduras in January.

Victims of Hurricane Eta in the San Pedro Sulla Valley seek refuge under a one-way bridge. San Pedro Sula, Honduras, November 2020 Seth Sidney Berry / Sipa USA / PAS Images All Rights Reserved

The term “victim” refers to the victims of a disaster such as a storm, flood or fire, but the name also evokes the suffering experienced by people who have nothing left. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), two record-breaking hurricanes affected 7.3 million people in the region. Before the hurricanes, OCHA estimated that Honduras and Guatemala already had a total of 4.6 million people in need.

On November 3, 2020, Category 4 Hurricane Eta struck the northeastern corner of the Miskito coast, just south of where Honduras meets Nicaragua. Eta was followed two weeks later by Hurricane Iota, which measured Category 5, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Iota hit the same area, centered just 15 miles to the south.

More than 300 people, many of them women and children, are abandoned on the border with Guatemala. Guillermo D’az, general director of the Guatemalan Migration Institute, expressed his concern about the number of women and children, stating that minors represent an even higher percentage of walkers than in previous caravans:

“A very interesting piece of information about this caravan that makes a quite significant difference is the number of children. The number of children and adolescents is highly significant, which puts us in some way on the safe side based on the interests and human rights of those who make up this caravan. “

Referring to the protocols established to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus at the border, Mr. D’az said that, although no one has entered Guatemala yet, the situation is “very complicated“.

“In his final weeks in office, President Trump vetoed a financial assistance bill that would have provided Americans with $ 600 apiece. The president specifically opposed one of the components of the bill, which was foreign aid to Central America.”

Even the little ones, almost everyone in the group seems to be wearing a mask. Most dress in sweatshirts and jeans and carry simple backpacks. Guatemala now requires all foreigners over the age of 10 to present a current negative Covid test less than 96 hours before arriving at its border and then to quarantine themselves for 10 days. The use of face masks in public is mandatory.

Two months ago, a previous caravan of Hondurans was returned by the Guatemalan army , in accordance with the agreements concluded between the government of the President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, and the United States. Giammattei, who was elected in January 2020 but has not proven himself a popular president, is an ultra-conservative, the former director of the country’s prison system. The Trump administration cut financial aid to the country in 2019, and it will only resume this year on condition of stricter border control .

But apparently that compliance wasn’t good enough. In his final weeks in office, President Trump vetoed a financial assistance bill that would have provided Americans with $ 600 apiece. The president specifically opposed one of the components of the bill, which was foreign aid to Central America.

The number of deaths from hurricanes in Honduras has been grossly underestimated, according to an investigation by the independent news magazine Contracorriente . Dr. Julissa Villanueva, former director of forensic medicine, says the government is leaving the mission of reporting the victims to local communities that are not prepared to carry out the work. Dr. Villanueva explained:

“How many hundreds of deaths did the hurricanes leave us, which must be buried, but nobody is interested in knowing that figure and it will be lost until they are all forgotten.”

Canadian T-shirt and sportswear manufacturer Gildan, one of Honduras’ top employers, has had to close half of its factories in the country due to the hurricane, moving work to Barbados and other countries. According to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, because Gildan maintains an office in Barbados, the company has largely managed to avoid paying corporate income taxes in Canada. From 2009 to 2013, according to the article, the company only paid 1% tax.

Gildan employed 26,000 workers in Honduras, while in Canada it only maintains about 200 employees. Gildan declined to disclose the wages it pays in Honduras to the Globe and Mail, citing “competitive information“. But the newspaper found that Honduran unions estimate that workers there earn an average of $ 351 a month, working four 11-hour shifts a week. That’s above the minimum wage of $ 283 set by the Guatemalan government in the free trade zone, where Gildan’s facilities are located.

But it is far below the amount that the Washington DC Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC) calculates a living wage in Honduras, or $ 683 a month. His report also details numerous labor violations by the company.

One of the most affected regions in Honduras is the Sula Valley, an industrial and agricultural zone that produces more than 65% of the country’s GDP. NGOs CARE and the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) are reporting an impending severe food shortage .