Latin America Week in Review - July 11, 2014 Share This /

This week President Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced a new program to help monitor the his country’s border with Guatemala, and the U.S. trained an elite Honduran police unit set up at its northern border. Read these stories and other highlights below.

• Honduras is now deploying an elite unit from its national police, trained and funded by the United States, to stem the flow of unaccompanied minors moving northward through the Guatemala/Honduras border. The unit is funded by the U.S. State Department through the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) and trained by the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), according to The Los Angeles Times.

• Honduras has recorded 33 massacres of men, women, and children since the start of 2014 according to a study from the Observatory of Violence at the National University of Honduras. In 2013, the Observatory recorded 36 massacres throughout the entire year. President Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion to address the arrival of over 52,193 unaccompanied minors to the United States/Mexico border this year. Around $300 million would be designated to “address root causes” in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras,, such as lack of security and institutional development. On his blog, security analyst James Bosworth noted that while Honduras’ homicide rate is nearly double that of Afghanistan, Obama has requested $59 billion budget supplemental for the latter, while only requesting $300 million for the Northern Triangle (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala).

Of the $3.7 billion included in President Obama’s funds request, $109 million would also be used to help double the size of vetted units in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,, among other security measures meant to address the mass migration. “Vetted units” are vetted and polygraphed police units that carry out operations with a U.S. police advisor.

• On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations committee held a hearing to discuss President Obama’s funds request for the border crisis and Central America. Click here for video coverage of the hearing.

• On Monday, congressional Republicans, most notably Senator John McCain (R-AZ), threatened to decrease U.S. assistance to Guatemala by $80 million if the country does not reduce the number of youth migrants making the journey to the United States.

• In an op-ed for Military Times, head of U.S. Southern Command Gen. John Kelly highlighted the threat level posed to the U.S. by extreme insecurity in Central America, arguing, “in comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and illegal alien flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance. Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree.”

• Kelly, along with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met with officials in Guatemala on Tuesday to stress that minors arriving at the border would be sent home in accordance with U.S. law. During that meeting, President Otto Pérez Molina expressed concern over security at the Mexico/Guatemala border stating, “We hope that the resources President Obama is requesting to make available will improve the attention and processes given at the border." 

• In an effort to begin to address concerns over the Mexico/Guatemala border, on Monday Mexican President Felipe Peña Nieto and President Molina announced the start of “Programa Frontera Sur” to respond to the flow of unaccompanied migrants. The program is intended to “protect and safeguard the human rights of migrants that enter and travel through Mexico and to order international crossings to increase development and security in the region.”

• Mexico has deported 817,707 Central American minors over the past ten years, according to a report from the country’s General Migration Directorate.

• Vigilante groups in the border state of Tamaulipas are on the rise amid escalating levels of drug related violence, according to the Global Post.  Their spread, especially towards areas near the U.S./Mexico border, has raised concerns among human rights activists that the movement “may only add the Mexico’s cycle of violence.”

• The U.S. State Department officially announced the end of AeroMarti, a program funding an anti-Castro propaganda plane to fly over the island. The program was highly criticized for its exorbitant cost and questionable effectiveness.

• U.S.-based NGO's, including the Washington Office on Latin America and the Center for Justice and International Law and Due Process Law Foundation, expressed opposition to the appointment of Daniel Urresti as Peru’s new Minister of Defense because of his connection to the murder of a journalist during the country’s civil war against Shining Path rebels.