The article, A week later, everyone is confused about Trump’s aid cuts to Central America, published on April 5th, 2019 by ThinkProgress was very interesting in my opinion. This article signifies how the State Department, Congress and affected countries weren’t expecting the cuts and they don’t know what to do next.
This article talks about how the conditions in some communities in these countries affected are so bad, violence in Honduras, outright hunger in Guatemala where food insecurity is reaching famine levels, that people need to leave even if it means taking huge risks for their families. Some mothers are putting their daughters on birth control for the journey north because they know the odds of rape are extremely high and more than likely will happen. And despite all these risks, they keep leaving.
The Trump administration was in full support of giving almost 420 million dollars, while the governments of these three countries allocated 5.4 billion dollars. The supported it because this initiative supported programs that lead to lowered homicide rates, boosted job creation and helped fight corruption.
These countries governments were confused, Honduran government said they had met with national security advisor days prior. Homeland Security secretary also signed an agreement that focused on lowering migration rates the same week.
This article was very interesting to me, due to the fact that these southern countries agreed to help the migration and President Trump decided to cut all aid for them. After reading about their conditions, this is very scary. Imagine if you were that family making its way, or have to starve every night due to hunger. “Central Americans look around the world and say, ‘I’m a human being, and there must be some place in the world where I can live free from fear and want’ — and that’s why they leave.””
https://thinkprogress.org/one-week-later-no-clarity-on-what-trumps-aid-cut-to-central-american-countries-means-c19c9a48ce3e/