Posted on by Californiacontrarian

It’s All Political

I just returned from five days in Honduras. Before I get to the real subject of this piece, I want to go on record as saying that never once did I feel threatened or unsafe. Granted I was not walking around in the bigger cities where the gang activity is, but the issue of safety/Honduras is similar to the issue of safety/Chicago in that if you stay out of the areas that are known to be unsafe, you are fine. While I was there the subject of “the caravan” came up on multiple occasions. For the most part apparently there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of young men in some parts of the country. It is assumed that a lot of these young men have left their families behind in Honduras and have joined the caravan. There has also been a small decrease in the number of children attending school, again presumably because they have left Honduras to go north with a parent or parents.My longest discussion about the caravan was with Carlos, who is second in command with the largest non-profit, CePudo, in Honduras. Carlos is 45 years old, and is a native Honduran. His education through college has been solely in Honduras. My point here is that I think that it is safe to assume that he is attuned to what is actually happening in his country. His life is all about the poor, and helping the poor in Honduras. When I asked him about the caravan issue, he responded, “It’s all political.” Now keep in mind that he was not talking about U.S. politics, but about the politics in Honduras. (Yes, believe it or not there is politics in a poor country such as Honduras!) He further explained, “There is no way that these migrants are doing this on their own. How are they being fed? How can these people, especially the children, possibly walk the entire distance through Guatemala and then through Mexico to reach the U.S. border? Obviously they are being transported, probably by buses or pickup trucks, until they get close to the cameras, and then they start walking! Where are they sleeping at night? Where are they bathing? Someone is financing this entire operation. Perhaps, Soros.”

“Why?” I asked. He responded, “It’s all political. The subliminal message for the Honduran people is: ‘things are so bad here in Honduras that people are being forced to flee the country. If our present  government were better, people would not be forced to leave. If the opposing party were in charge instead, things would be much better.’ In general, most of the people who are being cajoled into leaving are poorly educated, and thus susceptible to to just about anything, including the caravan like migration, about which they actually know very little.”

I then asked him about the issue of the people who are fleeing because of the threats of violence and harm to either themselves or their family? “Certainly, there are situations where that occurs, but not in the numbers that are being advertised. Most of these “threats” are in the form of a “war-tax,” which is a relatively common form of extortion in the cities . . . ‘Pay us money, and we will protect you or your business from the opposing gangs’. I personally am not familiar of a situation in which individuals have been forced to migrate because they truly have their lives in danger. Again, it’s all political!”

Now I do not think that Carlos has anything to gain from implying that the situation in Honduras is not as some would suggest. “My job here in Honduras is to help as many people as I can. It is not, at all, political.”

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