Northern Triangle Research Articles

Empire, Leadership or Hegemony: US Strategies towards the Northern Triangle Countries in the 21st Century

<p>El artículo sistematiza las estrategias de los EE. UU. hacia los países del Triángulo Norte, siguiendo la categorización de Destradi. Para ello, se ha analizado el contenido de los documentos estratégicos para identificar como los EE. UU. definen sus objetivos en cuanto a la cooperación regional y las medidas para conseguirlos. El texto concluye con la afirmación que la estrategia de los EE.UU. hacia la regi ón puede definirse como hegemónica, sin embargo, progresivamente se ha cambiado de dura a intermedia, a medida que los EE.UU. se hicieron más perceptivos a las necesidades de sus socios regionales.</p>

“They Are Our Brothers”: The Migrant Caravan in the Diasporic Press

President Donald Trump framed the migrant caravan during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as an invasion, using it to attack the Democratic party. Trump’s attitude towards the caravan can be placed in the wider context of relationships between the U.S. and Latin American countries, reinforced by the mainstream media’s representation of Latino/Hispanic migrants as the other. However, the diasporic media frame topics in ways that represent and support the migrant’s own interests and create identities that bypass transnational borders. This research examined 55 articles about the migrant caravan published by La Hora Voz del Migrante, a Guatemalan diasporic newspaper, between Oct. 15 and Dec. 2, 2018. We found wide and sympathetic coverage of the reasons for migrating and the situations the migrants face on their way to the U.S. This coverage actively challenged Trump’s rhetoric, creating a sense of pan-ethnic solidarity between the countries of the Northern Triangle and Mexico. However, due to the level of involvement and the power of the U.S. in the region, Trump remained one of the main actors driving the conversation about the migrant caravan.

The Violence of Citizenship in the Making of Refugees

The Central American refugee crisis has been aggravated by the Trump administration’s policies, but this administration certainly did not precipitate it. The first half of this article examines the determinant role US policy played—and continues to play—in the violence that has sent tens of thousands of refugees to the US-Mexico border, showing how Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction has repeatedly been used to represent Central Americans as the existential enemy. From Ronald Reagan through Bill Clinton, administrations crafted policies toward the Central American enemy, directly creating the gang violence in the Northern Triangle. This article considers if the cost of security for the US citizenship is borne by the insecurity of Central American citizenship. The second half of the article examines fictionalized accounts drawn from the testimonies of women held in detention at Dilley, Texas, the existential enemy par excellence of the Trump administration. The reasons for their flight elucidate the particular ways in which gang violence against them and their children is gendered, showing how heteropatriarchy is decisive in both Mara violence and ICE and Border Patrol response to that violence, as evidenced in the experience of these women and their families.

Inked or Not: Maras and Their Participation in El Salvador’s Recent Armed Conflict

El Salvador remains one of the most violent countries in the world undergoing a murder epidemic. The blatant rise in social violence is driven mainly by gangs of the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), which frequently clash with governmental security forces. The situation legally blurred the lines between the law enforcement and armed conflict regimes. An insufficient amount of time has been dedicated to identifying the applicable international legal framework to El Salvador’s extreme gang violence and its repression. Consequently, the country’s categorization of violence has not been addressed. For this purpose, a contextual background narration of the politics of violence in the country followed by a detailed analysis of the constituent elements of El Salvador’s urban violence were examined. The assessment of facts and their juxtaposition to international jurisprudential criteria and doctrinal contributions on conflict classification suggest the situation reached international humanitarian law’s armed conflict brink.

Future Changes in Age Structure and Different Migration Scenarios

We analyze migration and demographic changes among the six countries of North America (NA) and the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA, i.e. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador). Together, they comprise a long-standing South-North migration stream, with the United States (US) and Canada being the main destinations for Mexico and the NTCA. Studies that analyze the demographic effects of international migration in origin and destination countries have been limited. In order to fill this gap and explain the implications of recent changes in migration trends and demographic dynamics of the six countries, we study the interrelationship between future changes in the age structure associated with different migration scenarios. We use data from the United Nations World Population Prospects 2017 to compare the main demographic indexes and age structure indicators under two prospective scenarios: with and without migration. Current and projected population dynamics suggest convergence in fertility below replacement levels, higher life expectancy, and an overall aging process in the NA-NTCA region. Future migration may slow down the aging process in Canada and the US, have a small effect in Mexico, and speed it up in El Salvador. Taking both the size of the populations and the decrease in young age groups for the main sending countries we have studied, it is unlikely that international migration to the US from Mexico and the NTCA will reach the historic peak observed during the first decade of the 21st century.

Forced Migration among Latinx Children and their Families: Introducing Trilateral Migration Trauma as a Concept to Reflect a Forced Migratory Experience

ABSTRACTForced migration is a process where people must leave their countries of origin due to situations of war, human rights violations, torture, and political reasons, among other factors. This article presents a working definition of forced migration with a focus on the experience of Latinx children and their families. Venezuela and the Northern Triangle of Central America are presented as regional examples and highlight the state of crisis regarding migration in Latin America. The author introduces the concept of trilateral migration trauma as a new model to understand forced migration experiences. Mental health considerations faced by children who forcibly migrate from their homelands are considered. The “push-pull” theory of migration is critiqued in the context of a forced migratory experience.

No Safe Space: Neoliberalism and the Production of Violence in the Lives of Central American Migrants

AbstractThis paper explores the ways in which neoliberal policies enacted by elites across the Northern Triangle have led to increased violence in Central America, a lived experience that continues as individuals migrate to Mexico and the United States. In this work, I examine how neoliberal polices in the region have created limited economic opportunities and means of subsistence for the poor in Central America, as well as the rise of extra-legal actors and criminal enterprises. Together these conditions leave Central Americans with no choice but to migrate north. This paper then explores the violence migrants experience as they move through Mexico. In this stage of the journey, migrant bodies are objectified and then commodified as cheap labor for the global market as well as local economies of violence. Lastly, I discuss the multiple zones of violence that migrants experience at Mexico's border with the United States. This project relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n= 99) with Central American migrants over the course of 4 years (2014–18). Ultimately, I find that for Central American migrants, violence can be a seemingly inescapable reality as neoliberal forces maintain and normalize violence in order to preserve an established social order at the expense of these migrants.

Generalized Violence as a Threat to Health and Well-Being: A Qualitative Study of Youth Living in Urban Settings in Central America's "Northern Triangle".

El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras rank among the top 10 countries experiencing violence in the world, despite not being at war. Although there is abundant literature on generalized violence in this “northern triangle” of Central America as a driver of out-migration to the United States, very little is known about the perspectives and experiences of youth who do not migrate. This study aimed to elicit the emic perspectives of youth residing in the region on how the day-to-day generalized violence produces a pervasive threat to the overall health and human security of youth as well as the key protective factors and resiliencies at work. We conducted two separate waves of qualitative research in 2015 and 2018 over a 6-month period, which included 60 in-depth interviews and six focus groups among Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran youth living in urban areas. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed two meta-themes: (1) ‘Lack of health,’ defined as not experiencing peace within the family, the community, and the country’ and (2) ‘Resilience.’ Thematic clusters that reflect the first meta-theme are: (1) violence as a common occurrence; (2) living in fear and insecurity; (3) victimization; and (4) lack of state protection and services. Thematic clusters for the second meta-theme are: (1) a positive future outlook and a commitment to education; (2) transnational and local family network support; and (3) engagement in community-based youth groups. To interpret the findings, we adopt the Latin American Social Medicine and Collective Health (LASM-CH) approach that prioritizes perspectives from the region. Generalized violence is conceptualized as a systemic phenomenon that is generated and reproduced through the complex interactions of structural inequities and unequal power relations. The findings of this study provide new insights into the implementation of a different approach to address the generalized violence, insights that may guide multi-sectoral health policies and interventions both in the region and transnationally.

Trauma, immigration, and sexual health among Latina women: Implications for maternal-child well-being and reproductive justice.

ABSTRACTLatina immigrant women are vulnerable to traumatic stress and sexual health disparities. Without autonomy over their reproductive health and related decision‐making, reproductive justice is elusive. We analyzed behavioral health data from 175 Latina immigrant participants (M age = 35; range = 18–64) of the International Latino Research Partnership (ILRP) study. We used descriptive and inferential statistics to compare immigrant mothers of minor children to those without, regarding their psychological and reproductive health, and correlates of past exposure to sexual trauma. Over one third (38%) of ILRP participants had minor children, and 58% had citizenship in their host country. The rate for sexual assault was 30 and 61%, respectively, for physical assault; these rates were similarly high for women with and without minor children. Women who reported sexual assault scored significantly higher for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance‐abuse screens. Odds of experiencing sexual assault was highest for women who experienced physical assault (odds ratio = 10.74), and for those from the Northern Triangle (odds ratio = 8.41). Subgroups of Latina migrant mothers are vulnerable to traumatic stress and related sexual and mental health risks. Given these findings, we frame the implications in a reproductive justice framework and consider consequences for caregiver–child well‐being.

Migrantes centroamericanos en tránsito por México ¿Primacía de los Derechos Humanos o de los capitales?

Este artículo describe las condiciones violatorias de Derechos Humanos que hacen parte de los riesgos a los que están expuestos los migrantes pertenecientes al Triángulo Norte Centroamericano (Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras), en su tránsito por México. Plantea que, frente al sueño de llegar a Estados Unidos, a pesar de la voz oficial del Estado, México más que intentar responder a la crisis humanitaria de los migrantes haciendo prevalecer los Derechos Humanos, opta por allanarse a los criterios de la política internacional norteamericana.

Why Are You Seeking Refuge? Conducting Evaluations of Central American Asylum Seekers

Asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle region in Central America, comprised of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, many of them unaccompanied minors and families with young children, are arriving at the U.S. border in record high numbers. Many of them have been exposed to trauma and violence in their country of origin and have suffered human rights abuses. Their reception in the USA is increasingly adversarial. Under the Trump administration, there has been a rise in policies that endanger the human rights of Central American immigrants and refugees. Mental health professionals can play an important role in protecting their human rights and helping them in the asylum process. They can assist asylum seekers through conducting culturally informed psychological evaluations and as expert witnesses, testifying in court and producing court reports. This paper includes an overview of the legal and international context of the asylum process and discusses geopolitical factors affecting asylum seekers from Central America. Case examples of evaluations of Central American asylum seekers that were conducted by the author are provided to illustrate key points of how social workers can assist applicants in their asylum applications, thereby supporting their human rights.

Violence in Times of Peace: A Reading of Jubilee from the Northern Triangle of Central America

The Northern Triangle of Central America is one of the most violent regions in the world. Although the violence has a long history, the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are currently experiencing a critical situation with a new threat: criminal gangs. This article explores regional violence and elaborates a peacebuilding proposal based on a reading of the concept of jubilee. Jubilee is explained via the categories of inclusion, reconciliation and rest. The article concludes that for the countries of the northern Central American triangle, the application of jubilee principles represents true peace in times of peace.

Accounting for extortion

This study analyzes how accounting participates in the business of extortion. Using a combination of archival, interview and participant observation data, we consider the extortion activities of two criminal organizations—the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18—that operate in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Starting from the assumption that the repetitive extortion activities of street gangs require organizational devices that coordinate activities and facilitate decisionmaking, we examine how street gangs use accounting. We also analyze how business targets react to receiving extortion demands. The analysis illustrates that both street gangsters and their extortion targets have a pre-existing existential relationship to accounting that influences how street gangsters use accounting as well as how business targets respond.

Experiences of gender-based violence in women asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala: a retrospective, qualitative study

Abstract Background In 2016, around 65 000 women fled gender-based violence in the Northern Triangle (NTCA) countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, and attempted to seek asylum in the USA. Some women participate in medical evaluations by clinicians to document the effect of these human rights violations as part of the asylum process. The aim of this study is to elucidate the forms of persecution experienced by women in this region, and the physical and psychological sequelae of this violence. Methods We undertook a retrospective, qualitative study of asylum-seeking adult women fleeing gender-based violence from the NTCA who were seen by evaluators in the Mount Sinai Human Rights Program from February, 2014, to August, 2018. We included any case in which the client self-identified as female, came from an NTCA country, and received a psychological evaluation. This study was approved by the Mount Sinai Institutional Review Board. We used a modified consensual qualitative research (CQR-M) approach to identify themes found across the archived and de-identified affidavits written as part of the medical evaluation. Findings We included data from 70 women; mean age was 29·4 years (SD 6·5; range 18–55 years]. 24 women identified as Salvadoran, 15 as Guatemalan, and 31 as Honduran. All women reported violence perpetrated by their communities, families, intimate partners, and/or powerful gangs, and faced justice systems in their countries that they felt would not protect them. They had been subject to: verbal (50 women [71%]), physical (57 [81%]), and sexual (59 [84%]) assaults; death threats (58 [83%]); control (40 [57%]); extortion (24 [34%]); and harm, or threats of harm, to their children (50 [43%] and 22 [31%], respectively). Evaluators identified psychological symptoms associated with anxiety (56 women [80%]), depression (64 [91%]), and post-traumatic stress disorder (56 [80%]), as well as suicidality (33 [47%]). Women also reported physical injury including bruising, head injury and loss of consciousness, and gynaecological harm including miscarriage and forced sterilisation. Many women had been displaced within their own countries before fleeing and stated that they travelled with their children, experienced hazardous conditions and violence during their journey, and were detained on arrival in the USA. Finally, the women reported resilience associated with their religious beliefs, family, temperament, and ability to make meaning from their experiences. Interpretation This study highlights the systemic nature of gender-based violence in the NTCA. The results also describe the perils that women from the NTCA encountered during their migration and demonstrate the continued structural violence that awaits them if they are denied asylum and returned to their countries of origin. Funding None.

Geographic and Spatial Assimilation of Immigrants from Central America's Northern Triangle

AbstractWith declines in migration from Mexico, the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) – El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala – are now responsible for some of the largest increases in the population density of Latinos in the United States. Using data from the 5‐year estimates of the 2016 American Community Survey and the Atlas of Rural and Small‐Town America, this article provides a spatial framework for settlement among NTCA immigrants in America. Findings illustrate that, unlike previous streams of Latino migration, which tended to be more agriculturally driven, NTCA immigrants are likely to choose settlement destinations in densely populated counties which support manufacturing rather than those which are farming dependent. We also find that while NTCA communities are predominant in new destinations like Prince Georges and Montgomery counties Maryland, they are also dominant in older Latino destinations like Harris County, Texas and Los Angeles county, California.

Understanding gang-recruitment through selective incentives : the case of Honduras.

Since their origins in the 1960s, criminal organizations in Latin America have been responsible for brutal acts of violence in the region. However, very little is known about the specific mechanisms involved in their recruitment tactics. Empirical evidence demonstrates that the use of selective incentives is widespread among gangs to compel membership. This essay considers both the shape and character of Honduran gang members and attempts to highlight the complex phenomenon of gang recruitment. I will advance a twofold approach of the selective incentives theory of rebel recruitment to identify the significant mechanisms at play in the recruitment of citizens to join violent gangs. Understanding the processes of recruitment involved in the Honduran case will potentially contribute to better plan and execute interventions to reduce gang violence in the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) and Latin America at large.

Политизация пограничной проблемы: США и Мексика в региональной миграционной системе

The system approach allows to analyze the impact of cause-and-effect relationships in the migration processes development. From this position, the changes taking place in the migration processes on different sides of the Mexican-American border are considered. In the Republican President D. Trump rhetoric, the Southwest border line has become a kind of frontier separating the civilization from a chaos. The U.S. border Wall has gained symbolic value in internal and foreign policy. The U.S. regulatory policy reinforcement has changed the previously established subregional migration system, including the United States, Mexico and the Northern Triangle states of the Central America – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico is forced to a more active transit migration resistance. At the same time, the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Mexico grows. In fact, it began to play the Safe Third Country role for the U.S. asylum seekers from Central America. However, the migration push factors continue to increase in the Central American countries, and the migration pressure will activate. All these processes lead to significant changes in the existing mobility forms in the subregional migration system.

Del tránsito interrumpido a la deportación. Niñas, niños y adolescentes centroamericanos viajando solos hacia Estados Unidos

This paper discusses problems involving unaccompanied girls, boys and adolescents who emigrate from countries in the Northern Triangle of Central America —Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador— to the United States. Without attempting to characterize the different particularities that this phenomenon produces, this exercise describes some specific situations that help to understand the complexity of a process that involves Central America-MexicoUnited States, and that became relevant to the mass media in June 2014 when the US government publicly announced the arrest of more than fifty thousand young unaccompanied migrants who entered its country as undocumented migrants. They are unaccompanied girls, boy and adolescents, aged 12 to 17 —although some are younger—, who cross an internationally recognized border, without their parents or guardians. They migrate in separation or without the company of the adults who, by law or by custom, are responsible for them. For this purpose, a review of texts and reports related to the subject was made, as well as the systematization of empirical information constructed through the ethnographic exercise carried out during the years 2012 and 2013 in the border city of Tapachula, Chiapas.

The Weight of the Continuous Past: Transitional (In)Justice and Impunity States in Central America

AbstractCentral America’s Northern Triangle is infamous for high levels of violent crime and human rights abuses, producing “impunity states” in which violence typically goes unpunished. That violence reflects the broader impunity or “transitional injustice” that has persisted since the peace accords and transitions to democracy of the 1980s and 1990s. Several “posttransitional” trials for past human rights violations in recent years in Guatemala were made possible by institutional strengthening efforts in the prosecutorial agency, led by a unique United Nations commission. Significant progress away from broad impunity may also be seen in the 2015 “Guatemalan Spring,” in which a sitting president was forced to resign and submit to prosecution in connection with a corruption scandal. Comparisons of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras suggest that institutional strengthening is necessary before “posttransitional justice,” or an end to impunity more generally, can be possible.

From Caravans to the Courts: A Practical Guide to Matter of A-B-’s Implication for Transgender Women of the Northern Triangle

On June 11, 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions overruled the 2014 precedent decision, Matter of A-R-C-G-, which had opened the door to asylum claims based on domestic violence as a product of deeply entrenched patriarchal norms. In Matter of A-B-, Session's held that “[g]enerally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum.” This decision may affect transgender cases in a less obvious manner than women fleeing gender-based violence, such that advocates may not directly defend against A-B- as thoroughly. This paper is a practical guide for attorneys representing transgender asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle after Matter of A-B-. In order to understand and address the new obstacles facing transgender women seeking safety in the U.S., I first examine the history of transgender asylum claims in the U.S. and the systemic violence facing transgender women in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In the second section of this paper, I qualify the legal hurdles that this decision introduced while presenting the alternative arguments available for overcoming A-B-‘s heightened standard.