If they board a bus, undocumented migrants in Mexico can be pulled off and deported by soldiers at numerous checkpoints dotting northern-bound highways. Without paperwork, they can’t make it past the airport service counter. So the train remains the most accessible means of transport for Hondurans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and others hoping against hope to make it to the US. And the most deadly.
“Our organizations have documented an alarming increase in violence and human rights violations. While we recognize that transnational crime and drug-trafficking play a role in this violence, we call on our governments to acknowledge that failed security policies that have militarized citizen security have only exacerbated the problem, and are directly contributing to increased human suffering in the region.”
The visit of Obama to Costa Rica to attend the meeting of the Central American Integration System (SICA, by its Spanish initials) was nothing more than a smokescreen for anything but the SICA meeting. There was never any intention of holding a real SICA meeting.
For now, hawk talk is being toned down dramatically in response to Latin American pressure and grisly evidence of the Drug War’s failures. As for Cuba, Obama will have to move toward better relations over the fierce opposition of Cuba Lobby hard-liners, like Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Days before President Barack Obama arrived on Costa Rican soil, three Black Hawk helicopters would appear on the horizon of the army-less Central American country, scanning the streets for potential security threats. When the president landed in the country on Friday, May 3, the streets of the capital city San José were empty and silent, cleared by local police in preparation for the leader’s visit. It was the president’s second stopover on a diplomatic trip into the region that was referred to by Secretary of State John Kerry as “America’s backyard” just weeks before.
Obama last visited Mexico during the G-20 summit in Los Cabos last June. He and his entourage will touch down again today for talks with Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto. Since his election, Peña Nieto’s team has worked to shift media focus away from violence related to the drug war and towards the economy, something that will likely be reinforced during this visit.
They set out on February 25, from different parts of a country torn apart. In silent defiance, they entered the capital city of Tegucigalpa on March 6. On International Women’s Day they made their demands of a government that has trampled their rights and brought bloodshed across the nation since the rule of law was shattered three and half years ago.
