Honduras, a desperate situation

Honduras a country with 112,000 km2 and 9.100,000 inhabitants is suffering a very difficult moment. Thousands of people are escaping from a critical political, social and security environment.

Donald Trump threats

US President Donald Trump's threats against a caravan of thousands of Honduras migants  headed to the United States will not deter people from fleeing the Central American country, activists say, adding they would welcome a cut in US military and security aid to Honduran security forces.

"With regard to the threats of the United States government, I don't even think people listen to that," human rights activist Yessica Trinidad told Al Jazeera over the phone.
"People leaving have no certainty as to whether or not they will arrive. It is like leaping into an abyss, but for them, it is better than living here," said Trinidad, coordinator of the Honduran Network of Women Human Rights Defenders.

The caravan set out Saturday from northwestern Honduras. More than 2,000 people reached Guatemala Monday after a standoff with Guatemalan police at the border. The caravan, now in waves at different points on the route, continues to grow, with some estimates putting it at more than 5,000.

Honduran migrants cross the Lempa river, on the border between Honduras and Guatemala, to cross into Guatemala to join a caravan trying to reach the US [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

On Thursday, Trump ramped up his threats against the caravan, tweeting that "in addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in strongest terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

Earlier in the week, he had threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if the caravan wasn't stopped before it reached the US border.

The warnings came less than a week after the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met in Washington for the second Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America. As part of its Strategy for Central America, the US has committed about $2.6bn in aid to Central America for 2015 through 2018.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), US aid to Honduras totalled more than $181m last year. The category of security, the justice sector, and violence prevention received more funding than any other, without including funding for borders and drug control. Most of the aid is channelled through the Department of State and US Agency for International Development, but there was also $47m via the Department of Defense last year, according to WOLA. 

Adam Isacson, director of WOLA's defence oversight programme, said the number earmarked for this year is likely close to that of 2017. The organisation has not yet been able to obtain country breakdowns of regional security funding but does not expect the final tally will be a big shift from last year.

Isacson said Trump's comments show he does not understand how aid works.

"Trump's tweets betray that our president actually thinks that US aid is a big cash transfer to those countries, like we're just giving them money. And I think a lot of people think that," he told Al Jazeera over the phone. 

"The president's tweets seem to [suggest] that you're just turning off a cash spigot and there's this river of cash flowing to Honduras," Isacson said.
"But of course not a dime goes to Honduras because of the fear it will be stolen. It's all in kind. It's all training or technical services or contractors or equipment for specific things," he said.
Reference: Aljazeera.com