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The U.S. Vowed to Defend Central American Democracy. Autocrats Had Other Plans.


GUATEMALA CITY – Standing at Guatemala’s National Palace last June, Vice President Kamala Harris outlined a break with President Donald J. Trump’s approach to undocumented migration. sheet. Instead of building walls and deporting minors, the United States will focus on reducing corruption and punishment in Central America, giving the hundreds of thousands of migrants who leave the region each year a reason to stay. again.

Rule of law advocates will be rewarded with billions of dollars in investments. Those who topple it will feel the wrath of the United States.

“If we want to be effective, if we are to stay true to our principles, we must root out corruption wherever it exists.” Mrs. Harris said, standing next to the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei. “It’s one of our highest priorities.”

But a year later, Central America has emerged as one of the biggest foreign policy failures of the Biden administration. Many countries have sunk deeper into authoritarianism and poverty, and sent record numbers of migrants to America’s southern border, leaving the region’s fragile democracies in dire straits. since the Cold War, according to American diplomats and civil society leaders.

In Guatemala, Central America’s most populous country, Mr. Giammattei methodically dismantled the last vestiges of independent institutions. One by one, his government has imprisoned, exiled, or silenced people whom the United States thinks will bolster its efforts to make Guatemala a more just and ultimately more livable society: independent judges, prosecutors, journalists and human rights activists.

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega has been jailed or forced into exile for the past year nearly all dissenting voices, turning the country into a totalitarian dictatorship. President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who used a crackdown against gangs to stifle free speech, announced Thursday that he would seek a second term in the next election despite the Salvadoran constitution’s explicit ban on re-election.

And even in the region’s strongest democracy, Costa Rica’s newly elected president, Rodrigo Chaves, has launched unprecedented attacks on journalists. investigate allegations of sexual harassment and financial misconduct, calling them “rats” and using executive power to starve their businesses.

“Everything the United States has done to facilitate stability,” said Manfredo Marroquín, head of Citizen Action, a Guatemalan anti-corruption policy group, and one of the last civil society leaders in Guatemala. identification and improvement of the area have yielded no results. Nation. “It’s an empty hoax.”

Although chronic poverty and inequality, which have been deepened by the pandemic and global inflation, are the main drivers of Central American migration, punishment and corruption are making living conditions worse. worsen and increase migration.

In Guatemala, a top judge and a senior prosecutor investigated corruption cases involving the president both fled the country this year to avoid arrest, despite pleas from Washington to protect their positions. The head of Guatemala’s leading independent newspaper, elPeriódico, covered those cases extensively, was jailed in Julycharged with money laundering.

And Mr. Giammattei’s choice of the position of attorney general and head of the anti-corruption prosecution unit, which Ms. Harris said will work with US law enforcement to investigate the pairing, was instead banned by the United States for undermining corruption investigations.

Despite the Biden administration’s emphasis on reducing migration from Central America, people are still heading north in huge numbers.

The U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 600,000 arrests of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans — the four main groups of Central American migrants — in the first 10 months of this fiscal year, a record high and up 4% over the first 10 months of this fiscal year. for the same period in 2019 These struts reflect the overall sharp increase in border crossings under the Biden administration.

The numbers have grown even as the Biden administration has maintained some Trump-era deals with Central American leaders to control migration. The Guatemalan government accepts weekly deportation flights from the United States and most have parted ways with migrant caravans on its border.

Former US officials and civil society leaders say the Biden administration’s reluctance to put more pressure on increasingly autocratic governments is due in part to its desire to maintain support for its own policies. Migration and Security in Central America.

Claudia Samayoa, a prominent Guatemalan human rights defender, said: “The agreement is to cooperate on migration in response to harsh criticism.

U.S. officials and those close to the administration say promoting democracy in Central America is a long-standing task, and the backlash from the dictatorship suggests corrupt officials feel threatened by the regimes. Washington policy.

“We recognize that we are facing challenges and profound and difficult problems that exist in many centuries. “This is a process; We understand that these are conditions that cannot be changed overnight. “

Washington officials, Biden stressed, can sidestep corrupt governments and work with the private sector, civil society, and honest officials in the judiciary and Congress to advance the economy. democracy.

“There are ways to find elements in the current government that are willing to do the right thing,” said Todd Robinson, assistant secretary of state and former US ambassador to Guatemala.

Mr. Robinson acknowledged that the US government’s dual priorities of immigration control and pro-democracy could be at odds, but said Washington could effectively pursue both.

“There’s tension, but that’s part of being a big government,” he said.

Administration officials have increasingly emphasized efforts to boost private investment in Central America, another part of Washington’s policy to tackle migration, and say they have secured a three-year investment commitment. $2.2 billion in the region.

The lowering of expectations stands in sharp contrast to the strong language used by senior Biden officials in the early days of the administration.

“People, I think, need to understand that four years of ignoring corruption under the Trump administration are over,” said Juan Gonzalez, chief Latin American adviser to the White House, told a Guatemalan newspaperLa Hora, in January 2021.

“A leader who is not willing to fight corruption will not be an ally of the United States,” he said in a separate interview with a Salvadoran news website, El Faro.

The presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua have responded to Washington’s call for local allies by speeding up attacks on democratic institutions in their countries.

The founders of La Hora have been summoned for questioning by pro-government prosecutors for allegedly disclosing classified information. Five El Faro journalists had to leave El Salvador for fear of prosecution.

The Biden administration has revoked the visas of more than 60 government officials and business people in Central America for undermining democracy and expressing public support for civilian leaders facing persecution. pressure.

But diplomats and civil society leaders called the administration’s response muted and said it only encouraged authoritarians.

Edgar Gutiérrez, a Guatemalan political analyst, said: “Weak and indifferent sanctions don’t work.

In May, Mr. Giammattei extended the appointment of the country’s attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, who is under US sanctions.

Months earlier, Ms. Porras fired and then requested an arrest warrant against the country’s top anti-corruption prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval. The subpoena was issued after Ms. Harris apparently asked Mr. Giammattei to keep Mr. Sandoval in his place and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken gave Mr. Sandoval a Anti-Corruption Champion Award.

“The United States has lost its ability to influence the region,” said Claudia Escobar, a former Guatemalan judge who now teaches at George Mason University in Washington.

The offices of Mr. Giammattei and Ms. Porras did not respond to requests for interviews.

So far, the Biden administration has largely stopped using financial sanctions in Central America that have been widely used by Mr. Trump, if to little effect, in nearby Cuba and Venezuela. Since President Biden took office, only seven Central American officials and their associates have been sanctioned under the so-called Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the US government to freeze and seize the assets of those foreign nationals accused of human rights violations, according to the State Department. .

The Biden administration has also largely refrained from targeting Central American economies or large companies close to authoritarian governments, one critic said the decision reflected White House concerns about destabilize regional economies and cause more migration.

Another tool created by the Biden administration to defend the rule of law in Central America, Ministry of Justice Anti-Corruption Task Forcehas not issued an indictment since its formation a year ago.

In defense of its strategy, US officials point to Honduras, where citizens vote the corrupt and authoritarian government of Juan Orlando Hernández last year. In April, Mr. Hernández was extradited to New York in chains US officials say they face drug-related charges, a reminder of the enduring accessibility of the US justice system.

His successor, Xiomara Castro, averted Mr. Hernández’s worst abuses of power, though so did she, so far. fail in doing well about her campaign promise to tackle corruption and expand human rights.

However, such a democratic transfer of power remains elusive in other important Central American countries. Mr. Bukele still extremely popularNicaragua’s Mr Ortega has jailed or exiled all opposition leaders, and in Guatemala the opposition is still too fragmented to seriously challenge Mr. next.

Jordán Rodas, Guatemala’s former human rights inspector who left the country hours before the end of his term in August. “But they can play an important role by helping to ensure transparent elections that give us the opportunity to choose for change.”

Anatoly Kurmanaev and Jody Garcia reports from Washington and Guatemala City. Report contributed by Bryan Avelar and Yubelka Mendoza from Mexico City, David Bolanos from San José, Costa Rica, and Joan Suazo from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.





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