Analysis: Biden's migrant strategy clouded by Central American graft
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[April 15, 2021]
By Diego Oré
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe
Biden wants three Central American countries to crack down on corruption
as part of a plan to spend billions of dollars in the region to stem
illegal migration.
Yet accusations of graft and authoritarianism dog some of very leaders
Biden must work with in Central America, feeding concerns about their
desire to clean up government.
Since taking office in January, Biden's administration has pledged to
set up a regional task force to fight graft, and threatened to freeze
U.S. bank accounts of corrupt officials in Guatemala, Honduras and El
Salvador - three countries known as the Northern Triangle that account
for much of undocumented immigration to the United States.
With apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexican border at their highest level in
two decades, Biden is pursuing a $4 billion plan in Central America.
Washington regards corruption and poor governance, alongside poverty and
violence, as key factors behind Central American emigration, and is
worried that any U.S. financial aid for the region could fall prey to
corruption.
The Biden administration is urging the region's governments to meet
targets on combating corruption, to support judicial and electoral
independence, and to protect human rights, a U.S. State Department
official told Reuters.
Leaders in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador need to oversee "systemic
change," the official said.
"We're not going to be able to have a close partnership with governments
that are not committed to working against corruption," Brendan O'Brien,
acting head at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, told Reuters.
The region's record on corruption is patchy.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is himself under investigation
by U.S. prosecutors for alleged links to drug cartels and has warned
that the allegations could harm international cooperation. He denies any
involvement in drug smuggling. His brother was sentenced to life in
prison for narcotics trafficking by a U.S. court last month.
To many in Washington, Honduras is the main worry in Central America.
Elections to replace Hernandez are due in November but several of the
front-runners have already been embroiled in corruption probes.
In El Salvador, the growing concentration of power by President Nayib
Bukele, who last year sent troops into the national parliament to
pressure lawmakers into approving law and order legislation, also
unsettles U.S. officials.
Bukele has criticized Biden's plans as a rehash of the Obama-era
Alliance for Prosperity, a regional economic development scheme, which
he said failed to yield results.
Last week he ignored a request from the U.S. envoy to the Northern
Triangle, Ricardo Zuniga, for a meeting during a visit to El Salvador.
In Guatemala, President Alejandro Giammattei raised alarms in Washington
by appointing his lawyer to sit on the country's highest tribunal, the
Constitutional Court.
On Tuesday, Guatemala's Congress refused to swear in a renowned
anti-graft campaigner as the new president of the court, leaving it
controlled by judges with ties to political parties, corruption scandals
and the military establishment.
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President Joe Biden leaves after delivering remarks on his plan to
withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, at the White House,
Washington, U.S., April 14, 2021. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS
"It's going to be difficult for the Biden administration to find
reliable allies among Central American governments," said Adam
Isacson of the Washington Office for Latin American Affairs, a human
rights advocacy group.
WORRY
Publicly, the three governments have pledged to eradicate graft.
Hernandez's cabinet chief Carlos Madero said Honduras was committed
to tackling corruption and would remain a reliable partner for
Washington in counter-narcotics.
Guatemala's presidency told Reuters combating corruption was a top
priority: not based on "dispositions or conditions from abroad" but
because it was "the right thing to do."
El Salvador's government, which did not reply to requests for
comment, has promised to clean up public life, launching an
internationally backed anti-graft commission in 2019.
But with the Biden administration planning to increase aid to the
region and U.S. lawmakers wary about wasting taxpayers' money,
Washington will not cut "a blank check" to its governments, a senior
U.S. official told Reuters.
U.S. officials say Washington wants to channel support to civil
society groups, limiting direct aid to governments.
Still, one U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, expressed
concern that NGOs were often not equipped to absorb the millions of
dollars Washington wanted to deploy, and that they too required
higher levels of transparency.
The United States is considering conditional cash transfers to help
address the economic hardships that lead people from the Northern
Triangle to trek to the United States, as well as sending COVID-19
vaccines to those countries.
U.S. officials say Central American countries should support a
regionally backed and independent anti-corruption commission,
similar to ones established in Guatemala and Honduras that were
shuttered in 2019 and 2020.
Washington also wants more Justice and Treasury Department officials
working in the region to combat crime, and to create a new office
for investigating corruption, one U.S. official said.
In El Salvador, Bukele must commit to a clear separation of powers
and transparency, the official added.
Corruption is just one factor fueling migration. Governments are
also struggling to combat endemic violence by street gangs, and the
economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Two hurricanes also
devastated the region in November.
"The people get poorer and they, the officials in charge, get
richer," said 39-year-old Laura Escobar, a Salvadoran who plans to
emigrate after losing her job in the pandemic.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Renteria in San Salvador, Gustavo
Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City and Matt
Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Dave Graham, Daniel Flynn and
Alistair Bell)
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