scholarly journals The Historical and Contemporary Causes of «Survival Migration». From Central America’s Northern Triangle

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Liisa Lukari North
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Criminal Violence ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Great Damage

Durante la última media década se han producido salidas masivas de refugiados procedentes del Triángulo Norte de América Central, es decir, de El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras. Dichas salidas surgen de una serie de procesos históricos perversos, que se refuerzan mutuamente: la implementación profundamente defectuosa de acuerdos de paz igualmente defectuosos que puso fin a las guerras civiles de la región en la década de 1990; la búsqueda de la privatización neoliberal y las políticas económicas «amigables al mercado» que socavan el avance hacia una paz social sostenible; los acuerdos comerciales que infligieron un gran daño a la agricultura campesina; la búsqueda de inversión extranjera en sectores extractivos que desplazaron a pueblos rurales e indígenas y las políticas de las principales instituciones internacionales y del gobierno de Estados Unidos en particular, que profundizaron todas estas tendencias perversas que dejaron a la gente sin medios de vida. Las bandas criminales y la violencia vinculadas al narcotráfico son manifestaciones de estos procesos subyacentes que expulsan a las personas de la región en oleadas de «migración de supervivencia» forzada. The past half decade of massive refugee outflows from the Northern Triangle of Central America –that is, from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras– emerge from a number of perverse and mutually reinforcing historical processes: the deeply flawed implementation of equally flawed peace accords that ended the region’s civil wars in the 1990s; the pursuit of neoliberal privatization and «market-friendly» economic policies that undercut advance toward sustainable social peace, including trade agreements that inflicted great damage to peasant agricultura; the pursuit of foreign investment in extractive sectors that displaced rural and indigenous peoples, and the policies of the major international institutions, and of the United States government in particular, which deepened all of these perverse trends that left people without livelihoods. The gang and criminal violence linked to the narcotics trade are manifestations of these underlying processes that expel people from the region in waves of forced «survival migration».

scholarly journals El Salvador’s FMLN and the Constraints on Leftist Government

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Young
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Progressive Reforms ◽  
Private Investors ◽  
The Right ◽  
First Time

The 1992 Salvadoran peace accords ended a 12-year civil war and forced modest democratic reforms on a state long dominated by a ruthless oligarchy and military. However, the new system represented a shallow version of democracy that remained largely unresponsive to the population. For two decades the far-right Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Nationalist Republican Alliance [ARENA]) party held the presidency and used it to enact pro-business economic policies of austerity, privatization, and deregulation. In 2009, the left-wing opposition party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), won the presidential elections for the first time. Yet despite winning some notable progressive reforms, the FMLN did not seek, much less achieve, a radical break from the neoliberal policies of previous administrations. FMLN leaders opted to continue a number of pro-capitalist policies while pursuing reforms to ameliorate the worst symptoms of the system, not overthrow it. The FMLN’s shift away from revolutionary socialism is attributable to several factors: a political and media terrain that still heavily favors the right, the continued influence of the United States government, and private investors’ control over the economy. These constraints were vitally important during the tenures of FMLN presidents Mauricio Funes (2009–2014) and Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014–2019). El Salvador’s political trajectory since 1992, and especially during the FMLN’s decade in the presidency, offers insights into the constraints facing various left-of-center governments elected across Latin America in the early 21st century.

scholarly journals Twelve Years a Terror: U.S. Impact in the 12-Year Civil War in El Salvador

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara McKinney
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
States Government ◽  
Salvadoran Civil War

This essay explores the impacts of the United States government and military in the civil war in El Salvador in a comprehensive historical study. Through the presence of monetary aid, a disregard for the human rights of people in El Salvador, and the presence of U.S. trained soldiers at the then School of Americas and the current Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the U.S. prolonged and augmented the negative effects of the Salvadoran Civil War.

Preparing Sanctuary

2018 ◽  
pp. 248-306
Author(s):  
Mario T. García
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Health Services ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Central Americans ◽  
The Church

This chapter concerns the preparation of the sanctuary movement at La Placita Church in downtown Los Angeles. In 1981, Fr. Olivares was transferred by his order to this church at the same time that thousands of Central Americans entered into the United States seeking refugee status after fleeing civil wars and repression in El Salvador and Guatemala. Fr. Olivares immediately embraced them as children of God and commenced programs at La Placita to assist them. He fed and clothed the refugees, and provided health services, legal services, and other forms of assistance. The most controversial part of this outreach was allowing some of the men to sleep overnight in the church itself. All of these activities prepared the way for Fr. Olivares to formally declare his church a public sanctuary.

Civic Foreign Policy: Human Rights, Faith-Based Groups and U.S.-Salvadoran Relations in the 1970S

2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Blanke
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Economic Elites

El Salvador, the smallest but most densely populated country of Central America, experienced one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars, accompanied by widespread human rights violations. State repression was especially brutal against opposition groups such as peasant associations, unions, students, and religious people. Twenty-five church people were murdered and many religious workers were persecuted, expelled, or tortured. Several U.S. missionaries were among those murdered or expelled victims. Although the number of religious victims is relatively small in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who were killed in the three civil wars of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, the murders of religious personnel had a profound impact on the religious community in Central America, and particularly in El Salvador. This impact also reached religious groups in the United States. Given the traditional alliance between the Catholic Church and the political and economic elites throughout most of Salvadoran history, the murders of religious leaders by government or government-linked forces symbolized a remarkable shift.

scholarly journals ¿Migrantes o refugiados? La crisis humanitaria de menores no acompañados que México y Estados Unidos no reconoce

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Ruth Elizabeth Prado Pérez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forced Displacement ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Humanitarian Emergency ◽  
Criminal Violence ◽  
Refugee Protection

Introducción: En 2014, la llegada a Estados Unidos de decenas de miles de menores no acompañados (en adelante, MeNAS) desde de El Salvador, Honduras y Guatemala reveló una crisis humanitaria de grandes proporciones resultado de la violencia de los cárteles de las drogas, las pandillas, y en la que también participan agentes del Estado. Este artículo analiza el flujo de menores no acompañados centroamericanos como una crisis humanitaria prolongada y silenciosa que los países involucrados parecen no reconocer. Ante la sólida evidencia que apunta a la violencia como factor clave del desplamiento forzado de miles de MeNAS, se examina como han respondido México y Estados Unidos.Método: La metodología está basada en una revisión de las encuestas aplicadas a menores para identificar las razones por las que dejan sus países (ACNUR, 2014; Human Rights Watch, 2016; Jones & Podkul, 2012; Kennedy, 2014); se revisan también estudios sobre la violencia en la región, en particular el índice de homicidios violentos. Se analiza la relación entre violencia y migración forzada de menores no acompañados que estarían en condición de recibir protección, examinanando la brecha existente entre los instrumentos jurídicos en torno al refugio y las políticas con las México y Estados Unidos han respondido a su llegada.Resultados: La situación de violencia generalizada en los países del Triángulo Norte Centroaméricano (TNCA) exhibe las características de una emergencia humanitaria cuya dimensión migratoria está vinculada al desplazamiento forzado de menores no acompañados. Dicha emergencia no ha sido reconocida por los países involucrados, lo que entre otras cosas tiene como consecuencia que los menores que huyen de la violencia no sean atendidos con medidas congruentes con el régimen internacional de protección a refugiados.Discusión o Conclusión: México y Estados Unidos han enfrentado la crisis de menores no acompañados centroamericanos con una serie de medidas que, lejos de atender su dimensión humanitaria, han resultado en la deportación masiva de muchos menores que serían elegibles para recibir asilo y que al retonar a su país corren riesgos que amenazan su vida. Así, el régimen de protección internacional a refugiados no está siendo adecuadamente aplicado adecuadamente. Introduction: In 2014, the arrival in the United States of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors (UAM) from of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala revealed a major humanitarian crisis resulting from the violence of drug cartels, gangs, and which also involved state agents. This paper analyzes the flow of UAM as a long and silent humanitarian crisis that the countries involved do not seem to recognize. Given the strong evidence pointing to violence as a key factor forced displacement of thousands of UAM, the paper examines how Mexico and the United States have responded to the crisis. Method: The methodology is based on a review of the most influencial surveys on the reasons why children leave their countries (Human Rights Watch, 2016; Jones & Podkul, 2012; Kennedy, 2014; UNHCR, 2014); as well as documenting violence in the region, particularly the rate of violent killings to explore the relationship between violence and forced migration of UAM who would be in condition to receive protection, identifying the gap between the legal instruments of the refugee regime, and the policies of Mexico and the U.S. to responded to the situation.Results: The generalized violence in the Central American Northern Triangle (CANT) countries displays the characteristics of a humanitarian emergency which migratory dimension is linked to the forced displacement of UAM. Such emergency has not been recognized by the countries involved having as a consequence, among other things, that minors fleeing criminal violence have not been subjects of measures which are consistent with the international refugee protection regime.Conclusion: Mexico and the United States have responded to the arrival of UAM with a series of measures that, far from addressing the humanitarian dimensión of the crisis, have resulted in the mass deportation of many minors who would be eligible for asylum. To mamy of these minors, returning to their country poses life-threatening risks. Thus, the international regime of refugee protection is not being properly implemented. 

Kissinger and Central America

2020 ◽  
pp. 152-182
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter explores U.S. relations with Central America during the Kissinger years. In the 1980s, civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala frightened the Reagan administration into reasoning that the Cold War had come to the doorstep of the United States. The civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua erupted during Henry Kissinger's tenure (in 1972 and 1974, respectively). Wholesale political violence carried out by “death squads” continued to characterize life in Guatemala in the 1970s. Examining the U.S. response to the mounting right-wing oppression in Central America provides historical background to the crisis of the 1980s and deepens an understanding of Kissinger's worldviews. Whereas Kissinger may have been impervious to Central American violence, he acted boldly toward Panama, pushing both of his presidents to renegotiate U.S. control of the canal and the Canal Zone.

EDITORIAL: Migration and competitiveness: Japan and the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Variable Cost ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Past Half

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.

Cold War Exiles and the CIA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Tromly
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Home Base ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Secret War

During the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, the United States government unleashed covert operations intended to weaken the Soviet Union. As part of these efforts, the CIA undertook support of Russian exiles, populations uprooted either during World War II or by the Russian Revolution decades before. No one seemed better prepared to fight in the American secret war against communism than the uprooted Russians, whom the CIA directed to carry out propaganda, espionage, and subversion operations from their home base in West Germany. Yet the American engagement of Russian exiles had unpredictable outcomes. Drawing on recently declassified and previously untapped sources, Cold War Exiles and the CIA examines how the CIA’s Russian operations became entangled with the internal struggles of Russia abroad and also the espionage wars of the superpowers in divided Germany. What resulted was a transnational political sphere involving different groups of Russian exiles, American and German anti-communists, and spies operating on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Inadvertently, CIA’s patronage of Russian exiles forged a complex sub-front in the wider Cold War, demonstrating the ways in which the hostilities of the Cold War played out in ancillary conflicts involving proxies and non-state actors.

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