Displacement in Honduras

According to the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos – CONADEH), nearly twice as many Hondurans were forced to relocate within their country in 2017 compared to 2016. Like those who left the country and are not included in these figures, these Hondurans fled death threats, violence, extortion and gang recruitment.

Here is Deborah Bonello in Extortion Drives Displacement of Victims and Perpetrators Alike in Honduras:

José began by paying 2,000 lempiras (around $83) to the gang, but over the course of a year and a half that rose to 3,000 lempiras (around $125). A member of the gang collected the money every month, and the amount kept on rising.

“It eventually rose to 12,000 lempiras (just over $500) a month,” José said.

“’If you don’t pay it tomorrow at 9am,’ they told me one day, ‘we know where your children go to school, we know where you work, where you walk, where you live and your daily movements … we have where you walk every day very well-controlled, so if you want to live you’d better pay.’”

José says that he left the neighborhood with his family before dawn the next day, and returned to his former home in Santa Bárbara, abandoning his house in San Pedro Sula. He and his family took what they could fit in the car.

A global crisis of displacement is at hand, of which Latin America is just one small piece. There are no easy solutions to the conflicts in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela. Those who have fled their homes to relocated within their countries or across international boundaries are likely going to be displaced for years, if not decades. Unfortunately, the United States does not at all seem interested in attacking the root causes of displacement on its own or through international organizations such as the OAS.

This displacement has the potential to destabilize neighboring countries, such as Costa Rica and Colombia. Such diffusion might get the United States to act but, if it does, I hope that we are motivated to tackle the root causes of the problem rather than to respond by building a bigger wall.