General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow is American gun culture tied to story of immigrants and refugees from Central America?
Where do immigrants who are picked up at the border come from?
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador for FY 2016.
El Salvador - 27,114 family units
Guatemala - 23,067 family units
Honduras - 20,226 family units
Mexico - 3,481 family units
Fleeing violence. We hear stories of gangs and murders and people afraid for their lives. History of U.S. in Central America has contributed to political instability.
Where do the guns come from?
A lot of the guns are from the United States. For all of the talk about drug smugglers crossing our border, we ought to be hearing about gun smugglers crossing our border INTO Central America.
And of course, there are the billions of dollars in arms that the U.S. has sent into places like Nicaragua over the years. John Bolton was part of that too, wasnt he?
Total population of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras is about 30,000,000, with a GDP of about $8500 per capita. Trump says he wants to build a wall, estimated cost is $70 billion (???), plus annual maintenance of $150 million.
Such a beautiful area, geographically, made unlivable by violence. What strategies exist to keep them down? Is it about corporate welfare tax dollars going direct to American corporations which then provide weapons or training, like Plan Columbia? Is it about political strategy, to keep left leaning movements from getting into power?
shraby
(21,946 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Sanity Claws
(21,822 posts)Keep in mind that Reagan sent weapons to the Contras in the 1980s. My recollection is that Contras had bases in or some other connection with Honduras. I wonder whether Reagan's war is a factor in the influx of guns and violence into Central America.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Bet Trump isn't so funny to them when they can't buy any more of their precious killing machines, can they?
lostnfound
(16,139 posts)Might be 80 cents of steel in a 2 pound gun, extra 25% is 20 cents. Of course the middlemen will take their cut of it too. But even an extra buck wont harm the business plan on a gun that retail for a few hundred dollars.