Yahoo Finance Obstacles mount in Central America as Biden seeks cooperation over corruption
Standing behind a podium next to the president of Guatemala during her first trip abroad this week, Vice-President Kamala Harris emphasized the renewed commitment of the United States to fighting corruption as part of efforts to confront the root causes driving migration from Central America.
But for many, the man standing beside her, Alejandro Giammattei, embodies the challenge in a region where past and current presidents have been accused of misdeeds ranging from embezzlement and bribery to authoritarianism and drug trafficking.
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Harris deflected attempts during the press conference to get her to directly address allegations of corruption surrounding Giammattei. “We will look to root out corruption wherever it exists because we know it is not in the best interest of a democracy,” she said.
The president was more direct. “How many cases of corruption have I been accused in?” said Giammattei defiantly, blaming the suspicions around him on social media. “I can give you the answer to that: none.”
For the US, the fact that he hasn’t been formally charged with any crime appears to be good enough.
The decision by the US to make Guatemala its principal partner in the troubled Northern Triangle region – the largest source of irregular migration to the US – is a recognition of the country’s strategic geographic location as well as its president’s status as arguably the lesser of evils. “It’s been called a choice by default,” said Tiziano Breda, a Central America analyst for the International Crisis Group.
Relations with the region’s other two presidents have already reached a low point. President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras has been repeatedly accused by the Department of Justice of conspiring with drug traffickers, accusations he vociferously denies.
Meanwhile, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, emboldened by one of the world’s highest approval ratings, has become increasingly authoritarian, consolidating power with recent maneuvers to oust the attorney general and judges from the constitutional court.
If the US is to achieve its goal of reducing migration along the southern border, it will need the cooperation of its counterparts at the source. But Joe Biden’s emphasis on corruption seems likely to run into resistance.
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Further complicating matters are the lingering effects of the approach of Donald Trump, who was willing to turn a blind eye to malfeasance – so long as his counterparts were equally willing to bend to his immigration policies.
According to Breda, political elites in the region have grown increasingly ready to resist external pressure to reform. “As they got used to a more transactional relationship with the US, they’ve come to acknowledge the fact that the migration issue, being at the very core of the US approach to the region, is at the same time a liability for US governments,” he said.
But what could become a liability for Democrats in next year’s mid-term elections is seen differently in Central America.
“For our countries, migration is a solution, not a problem,” said Helen Mack, president of the Myrna Mack Foundation in Guatemala. Migrants who work abroad send vast amounts of money back home that help sustain their families and prop up otherwise lackluster economies.
In 2019, Northern Triangle countries received $21.713bn in remittances. The White House has requested its highest-ever amount of foreign assistance for Central America in fiscal year 2022 – but that figure is still just $861m.
Little of that aid goes directly to Central American governments, and the Biden administration has indicated that due to corruption, that share is likely to decline even further. The state department has also signaled intent to decrease the number of grants awarded to US contractors, which are often for-profit companies that – after accounting for profits and overhead – significantly reduce the amount of money that reaches its intended destination. Instead, more grants will be awarded to local organizations, helping to strengthen civil society, a pillar of US strategy.
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Other major sources of external funding for the region are the international financial institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, which have continued to provide billions in loans with fewer strings attached than, for example, the US Agency for International Development.
“Our governments live off the international loans and debt,” said Mack, adding that contracts for infrastructure and other projects that are awarded from the loans are frequently a source of corruption across the region.
The US also has geopolitical concerns. The pandemic has opened a door for China, which, although it is unlikely to supplant the US in its own so-called “backyard”, seems determined to at least chip away at its influence. El Salvador has led the region in Covid-19 vaccination in part due to help from China. The two countries recently signed a cooperation agreement that Bukele claimed was worth $500m.
The Biden administration also faces a paradox. Studies have shown that as a country’s economic situation improves, migration increases before it decreases. In simple terms, more people are able to afford the costs of migration, such as hiring a human smuggler.
During her visit to Guatemala, Harris announced the creation of two new interagency taskforces. The first will go after the human smugglers. Much like the drug trade, however, with so much money at stake, the capture of smugglers seems unlikely to have a significant effect on the flows of migrants. It could also have the unintended consequence of making the journey north more dangerous, and increasing smugglers’ prices – and profits.
The second taskforce fulfills Biden’s campaign promise to create a regional anti-corruption body to replace the commissions that were kicked out of Guatemala, Honduras and most recently El Salvador, the former two largely victims of their own success, which threatened local elites.
Much remains to be seen about how the Biden administration’s proposals will play out in practice. Local residents who spoke with the Guardian praised the experience of the people tapped to oversee US foreign policy in the region and their messaging thus far.
But the vast shifts in approach between Biden and Trump also have them skeptical.
“The challenge for us is to make the United States understand that these policies must be long-term, and therefore bipartisan,” said Mack.