1 Recent issues on migration – US-Mexico-Central America Marta Sanchez Soler Executive Coordinator Mexico, Distrito Federal July 19, 2015 Migration responds to multidimensional incentives, but the massive migrations of today are due to circumstances over which people have no control. It is an issue related to geopolitical interests, a global phenomenon which feeds from the political, economic and social inequality generated by the neoliberal economic system exemplified by the Free Trade Agreements, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, SPP, and more; all at the service of big capital and transnational companies. Why are the people from Central American migrating? Historically, the US has intervened in Latin America by overthrowing democratically elected governments, financing atrocities and pushing trade policies that destroy local economies The US government must recognize that conditions it helped create make people leave their countries. Central AŵeƌiĐaŶs haǀeŶt ŵaŶaged to oǀeƌĐoŵe Đƌiŵe, ǀioleŶĐe, ĐoƌƌuptioŶ, edžploitatioŶ aŶd poǀeƌtLJ, siŶĐe every time there is a possibility for change, the US provides money and weapons to governments to halt their efforts. Nicaragua was invaded in 1912 and occupied until 1933. Anastasio Somoza took over, launching a decades-long dictatorship with US support. When the Sandinista government rose to power the US ďegaŶ LJeaƌs of fiŶaŶĐiŶg the CoŶtƌas, a right wing group responsible for committing atrocities and smuggling drugs into de United States with the Regan administration knowledge. The Salvadoran military committed atrocities in the 1980s, with US funding, including raping nuns, assassinating priests, killing hundreds of children. In Honduras, Manuel Zelaya became president in 2006 and responded to grassroots demands providing direct assistance to the poorest Hondurans but by 2009, Zelaya was ousted in a violent coup by powerful right-wing elites, with tacit support from the US government. The Ŷeǁ goǀeƌŶŵeŶts ƌeǀeƌsed )elaLJas ƌefoƌŵs aŶd the ĐouŶtƌLJs hoŵiĐide ƌate juŵped aloŶg ǁith a ŵajoƌ iŶĐƌease iŶ politiĐal ƌepƌessioŶ. As ŵuĐh as ϳϬ% of the ŶatioŶs poliĐe foƌĐes aƌe Đoƌƌupt. Yet U“ ŵilitaƌLJ and police aid to Honduras keeps on flowing. In 1944, Guatemala´s first democratic elections brought Juan José Arévalo to the presidency. Arévalo confiscated foreign estates to redistribute them to peasants; built new schools, hospitals and homes. Jacobo Árbenz, became president in 1951, deepening Aƌéǀalos ƌefoƌŵs. To Đƌush ĐoŵŵuŶisŵ aŶd ƌestoƌe UŶited Fƌuits pƌofits, the CeŶtƌal IŶtelligeŶĐe Agency (CIA) joined Guatemalan military officers to overthrow Arbenz in a 1954 coup. Decades of brutal repression ensued, peaking in the 1980s, when the Guatemalan military slaughtered 200,000 people and eliminated entire rural communities. There is much more to be said about US intervention in Latin America, including Mexico, among the most visible:  The U.S. funded the Guatemalan military during the 1960s and 1970s anti-insurgency war, some of the recipients of military funding and training were the Kaibiles, a special force unit responsible for several massacres. Former Kaibiles have joined the ranks of the most violent of Mexican drug cartels: the Zetas.  The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. With NAFTA, cheap US subsidized imports, agricultural products, flooded the Mexican market, leaving farmers and other low-skilled