Want to Counter Authoritarianism in Central America? Follow the Money.
The United States lacks reliable partners in the region. Here’s how to hold them accountable.
By Ricardo J. Valencia, an assistant professor of communications at California State University, Fullerton, and Michael Paarlberg, an assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
JUNE 21, 2021, 5:54 PM
During her recent visit to Guatemala, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris warned migrants “do not come”—a message destined to be futile. Many drivers of migration are out of U.S. hands: climate change, food insecurity, crime, and corruption. And although Harris and U.S. President Joe Biden announced they will concentrate their efforts on addressing these root causes, prior efforts to do so—especially those targeting corruption—have been thwarted by governments in the region, which view such efforts as an existential threat.
During the same visit, Harris also announced a new U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) anti-corruption task force for the Northern Triangle, which consists of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. But over the last several years, their leaders have been busy dismantling any institutions that may provide transparency or checks on presidential power, including all three countries’ anti-corruption commissions: the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras, and, earlier this month, the International Commission against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES). The day after Harris’s announcement, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced he would make Bitcoin a legal tender, raising alarms from the United States and International Monetary Fund (IMF) about possible facilitation of money laundering and tax evasion.
Any successful approach toward the Northern Triangle needs to acknowledge two converging phenomena: The United States is less hegemonic than it once was, and the region is becoming increasingly autocratic. Presidents are consolidating power in partnership with elite criminal networks to wall themselves off from public accountability and outside pressure.
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Prosecutors in the United States have already pursued criminal investigations of various government and government-linked figures in the region. In 2019, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was referred to as a co-conspirator in a drug trafficking case by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. This year, a court in the Southern District convicted his brother, Tony Hernández, a former congressman whose initials were stamped on packages of cocaine he was smuggling. He was accused of using proceeds from drug trafficking to finance his brother’s presidential campaign.
More:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/21/authoritarianism-corruption-central-america-investigations-sanctions-loans-trade-agreements/