August 18, 2021
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Voyeurism-capitalizing-on-suffering reporting about continuing refugee flight from Guatemala and Honduras
By Grahame Russell, Rights Action
Here, links to two mainstream news articles about forced migrancy from Central America that border on voyeurism capitalizing on suffering.
“Mexico has pushed hundreds of migrants expelled from the U.S. on to Guatemala, stranding them in a remote village far from their homes”
“Survivors of Guatemalan mudslide face death or emigration”
The Washington Post article correctly exposes some of the refugee rights violations committed by U.S. and Mexican government against forced migrants and asylum seekers. The AP news story provides a devastating portrayal of poverty, desperation and abandonment.
Neither article provides any information as to how the U.S., Canada and other actors in the “international community” supported military coups in Guatemala (1954) and Honduras (2009) that ousted their last democratically elected governments, and returned to power the corrupt, repressive, ‘open-for-global-business’ regimes in power since those military coups.
Neither article reports provide any information as to how the U.S., Canada and “international community” (World Bank, IMF, transnational companies) maintain beneficial economic, military and political relations with the regimes in Honduras and Guatemala, considering them “democratic allies”.
It is these international political partnerships and relations that are responsible for the conditions of violence and desperation that are forcing people to flee, year after year, decade after decade.
Reader conclusions
This type of voyeurism-capitalizing-on-suffering leads a reader to conclude: ‘Oh what a hard and sad place that is over there [fill in NAME of "poor" country]. Oh well, this has nothing to do with me, my government’s policies and actions, my country’s global companies and banks, my personal investments, my consumer demands and habits, …’.
New book – “Border & Rule”
See information below about “Border & Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism”, by Harsha Walia.
In the prevailing unjust Nation-State system that is dominated by a small number of rich, powerful countries, their militaries, banks and companies, there will be no end in the near future to the conditions of violent exploitation and dispossession, violence and desperation forcing millions of people – including Hondurans and Guatemalans - into refugee flight.
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“Harsha Walia disrupts easy explanations for the migrant and refugee crises, instead showing them to be the inevitable outcomes of conquest, capitalist globalization, and climate change generating mass dispossession worldwide.”
Background articles: Refugee flight from Guatemala & Honduras
- "Vicious closed cycle of forced migrancy from Central America, mainly Honduras and Guatemala", by Grahame Russell, February 21, 2020, https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/vicious-closed-cycle-of-forced-migrancy-from-honduras-and-guatemala
- "“Shithole countries”: U.S., Canada & international community helping produce forced migrancy from Honduras & Guatemala", By Grahame Russell, Rights Action, October 24, 2019, https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/shithole-countries
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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defender groups and their human rights and justice struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, and to provide emergency (COVID and hurricanes) relief funds, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
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