The Rise of Authoritarianism and Challenge to International Law

Eighth Reaction Paper - Ms. Shubh Tola

In the September 17, 2022, issue of the New York Times, “The U.S. Vowed to Defend
Central American Democracy: Autocrats Had Other Plans” , the author delves into the
subject-matter of how the Biden administration takes a different approach in the sense that it
aims to control migration flows while also making changes to the local conditions that push
people to leave their home countries. In my opinion, in his first few weeks in office, Biden
revoked the safe third country agreements with the nations of the Northern Triangle and
stopped work on the southern border wall. In accordance with the MPP, he is allowing about
25,000 asylum claimants who are now in Mexico to enter the United States while they wait
for a decision. In fact, During the election, Biden pledged to spend $4 billion over the course
of his first term to address the root causes of migration, including through initiatives in
Central American nations to lessen and prevent violence, assist farmers in changing their
crops or installing irrigation systems, and create economic opportunities. However, the
government took over a migration system that is in trouble. Immigration courts and other
bureaucratic departments no longer have the institutional ability to handle caseloads in a
compassionate manner.

Clearing the backlog of more than 1.2 million pending immigration cases and restoring
efficient asylum procedures will take time and money. The epidemic has made it more
difficult to control these movements and keep populations in check. Contrastingly, previous
U.S. immigration policy concentrated nearly entirely on preventing migrants from travelling
to, entering, or, if they did, residing in the United States. The "safe third country"
agreements, which mandate that applicants for asylum first seek asylum in neighbouring
nations before submitting an application to the United States, were coerced into signing by
Central American nations by the Trump administration. Additionally, the definition of what
qualifies as grounds for asylum was reduced, essentially omitting the domestic or gang
violence that so many people seek refuge from. Additionally, it significantly reduced the
yearly U.S. cap for refugees from over 100,000 to barely 15,000 per year

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 Next, the author also highlights how as part of Washington's strategy to address
migration, administration officials have been emphasising attempts to increase private
investment in Central America. They claim to have secured $3.2 billion in investment
commitments in the region. In stark contrast to the aggressive language used by senior Biden
officials in the early stages of the administration, the downplaying of expectations.

Next, the author also throws light on one of the biggest foreign policy missteps of the
Biden administration and what kind of approach it has resorted to so far as Central America
is concerned. According to former U.S. diplomats and leaders of civil society, many
countries have sunk further into authoritarianism and poverty and have sent record numbers
of migrants to the southern border of the United States, leaving the region's fragile
democracies in the worst condition since the Cold War. The remaining traces of independent
institutions have been meticulously destroyed by Mr. Giammattei in Guatemala, the most
populated country in Central America. The same people the United States claimed would
support its attempts to build Guatemala a more just and eventually more livable society—
independent judges, prosecutors, journalists, and human rights activists—his government has
incarcerated, banished, or silenced one by one.

Next,in my opinion, owing to the recent news regarding Zamora's unusual arrest, the
costs of overzealous U.S. and international caution in Central America have been made clear,
as has Guatemala's march toward dictatorship and kleptocracy. I think the arrest is a part of a
larger campaign to silence independent media, civil society, and Indigenous organisations. It
also serves as a warning that these trends are about to get worse, following in the footsteps of
Nicaragua and Venezuela. Just as their counterparts in those two countries did before they
were silenced, Guatemalan journalists act as an essential check on corruption and abuses by
those in power. Infact, since Mr. Giammattei took office as president in 2020, there have
been 350 attacks on the media in Guatemala, according to a survey done by the Guatemalan
Press Association. These blatant attacks on journalistic freedom have serious repercussions
for Guatemala's democracy. Fears of Guatemala drifting into authoritarianism are growing

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 among many Guatemalans and the world community. After years of military
dictatorships and a horrific civil war that ended in 1996, Guatemala was once regarded as a
model of democracy across Central America. The fact that there have been hundreds of
reported attacks against the press in Guatemala during President Giammattei's administration
thus far is evidence of how dangerous the current state of democracy is in the country. In any
democracy, even one attack on the press is a sign of democratic regress.

Next, among the leading causes of family migration to the north are poverty, violence,
and food insecurity. Most of the migrants at the southern U.S. border come from Honduras,
El Salvador, and Guatemala. World Vision helps disadvantaged families at the Mexico-U.S.
border by giving them food and essential home and educational resources. By fostering
resilience in collaboration with local companies, governments, churches, and schools to give
people in Central America access to a safer, more nurturing environment, we help people
maintain their optimism at home. The current piece also reiterates how, despite the fact that
persistent poverty and inequality which have been made worse by the epidemic and global
inflation are what are primarily driving migration from Central America, impunity and
corruption are making things worse and accelerating the outflow.

Next, the article also propounds how according to former U.S. officials and leaders of
civil society, the Biden administration's reluctance to exert more pressure on increasingly
autocratic governments is motivated in part by a desire to maintain support for its
immigration and security policies in Central America. Infact, it has also been reiterated that
the agreement is migratory cooperation in exchange for censured criticism. Additionally, the
Biden administration and European donors have consciously changed their emphasis to
favour supporting independent voices like journalists and civic society. However, it takes
time for these efforts to pay off. Additionally, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador have
taken steps to enact legislation that try to intimidate and silence dissenting opinions and
independent media outlets.

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 Next, it has also been extrapolated in the article regarding the undermining democracy,
wherein the Biden administration has revoked the visas of more than 60 businesses and
government officials in Central America, and it has publicly backed local leaders who are
being persecuted. However, diplomats and representatives of the civil society have criticised
the administration's response as muted and claimed that it has simply given authoritarians
more power. Weak, ambivalent sanctions are essentially ineffective. Furthermore, the
appointment of Maria Consuelo Porras, the nation's attorney general, who is subject to
American sanctions, was extended by Mr. Giammattei in May. Months before, Ms. Porras
sacked Juan Francisco Sandoval, the nation's top anti-corruption prosecutor, and
subsequently requested an arrest warrant against him. After Ms. Harris specifically requested
that Mr. Giammattei keep Mr. Sandoval in his job and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken
gave Mr. Sandoval an Anticorruption Champion Award, the warrant was issued. The United
States' ability to sway the region has diminished.

In my opinion, with the assistance of expanded US military and police aid, the coup
drove Honduras into an appallingly violent neoliberal hell with skyrocketing homicide rates
and widespread impunity for killings, rapes, and other crimes committed by Honduran
security personnel. Of course, the "war on drugs" the gift that keeps on giving in terms of
legitimising post-Cold War US imperialism and the militarization of Latin America was a
major justification for such funding to trigger-happy regimes like Mexico and Honduras. The
post-coup privatisation spree, massive "development" projects including land grabs and
environmental despoliation, and other US-backed neoliberal experiments in mass poverty
and communal displacement have only increased the dangers of living in Honduras. Given
this situation, it makes sense that many Hondurans and other Latin Americans in the same
boat would want to migrate in search of possible physical and financial protection.

However, Biden viewed the 2014 arrival of a large number of unaccompanied minors
most of whom were from Honduras at the US border with Mexico as a "dangerous surge in
migration." This viewpoint was expressed in the vice president's 2015 New York Times
essay titled "A Plan for Central America," in which he laid out his plan for reducing the

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 levels of violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in order to stop
the influx of migrants. The "Alliance for Prosperity," as Biden's plan was called, was
founded on the idea that security makes everything else possible. Circling back to what is
being discussed in the concerned article, U.S. officials cite Honduras as evidence in support
of their tactics, noting that country's population ousted Juan Orlando Hernández's corrupt and
autocratic regime last year. The extradition of Mr. Hernández to New York in shackles in
April to face drug-related charges served as a reminder of the American judicial system's
broad reach, according to U.S. officials. The greatest abuses of power committed by Mr.
Hernández's successor, Xiomara Castro, have been curbed, but she too has so far fallen short
of keeping her campaign promises to combat corruption and advance human rights.

The subject-matter that grabbed my attention the most in the article is definitely
pertaining to the illegal migration from Central America to the United States. I think families
might be uprooted for a variety of reasons. The most frequent causes of migration among
migrants from Central America are food insecurity, political unrest, violence, a lack of job
opportunities, or some combination of these. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic and the
results of hurricanes in 2020 Living conditions have gotten worse as a result of Eta and Iota,
two of the strongest storms to hit Central America in recent memory. The majority of
individuals in Guatemala, Honduras, and the Northern Triangle are working in the informal
economy, depriving them of social protections and insurance, and the majority of them live
below the poverty line. The pandemic has exposed governance shortcomings throughout the
region and has had a disproportionately negative impact on public health and the economy in
Latin America. Many Northern Triangle people are frustrated and disenfranchised as a result
of the populist politicians and dishonest officials' weakening of democratic checks and
balances.

Lastly, one thing I’d wish to get more insight into would most certainly be with regards
to what are the Biden policies towards this region. I believe that in order to restart efforts in
development, security, and anticorruption, the Biden administration is now requesting $4
billion. With the intention of lowering poverty, reducing violence, and increasing climate

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 resilience, this aid would be given to vulnerable communities, reform-minded public
institutions, and civil society organisations. Aid from one administration to another would
only be provided if anticorruption measures were put in place. Even while this type of
targeted aid is unlikely to have an immediate impact, it is the only long-term solution to stop
irregular migration out of the area. Ricardo Zuniga has been appointed by the administration
as a special envoy for the Northern Triangle to engage with local authorities and other
partners to stop undocumented immigration and implement Biden's $4 billion plan.