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Trump Administration Halts Aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

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President Donald Trump directed officials at the State Department on Friday to begin the process of ending financial support to three countries in the Northern Triangle, amid the latest surge of Central American migrants heading for the United States.

By: Harry Cherry

“I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras, and to El Salvador. No money goes there anymore,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday in Florida. “We were giving them $500,000,000. We were giving them tremendous aid. We stopped payment.”

“At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY [fiscal year] 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” a State Department spokesperson told The Jewish Voice in a statement. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”

Mr. Trump also threatened the close the United States-Mexico border next week, amid growing caravans of Central American migrants trekking their way towards the United States with the intention of seeking asylum.

“We have right now two big caravans coming up from Guatemala. Massive caravans walking right through Mexico. Now, they’re gonna stop them, and if they don’t stop them, we’re closing the border,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll keep it closed for a long time, I’m not playing games.”

Mr. Trump has previously made the same threat, regarding ending federal aid to various Central American countries, but this time appears to be following through.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., slammed the president’s decision in a statement, calling it “reckless and irresponsible,” while urging his fellow members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to thwart Mr. Trump’s move.

“U.S. foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens,” Mr. Menendez said in a statement. “This latest reported move shows the Administration still does not understand that the United States cuts foreign aid to Central America at our own peril.”

As of late Mr. Trump’s senior aides have appeared to advocate for continuing financial assistance to the Central American nations in question, citing their alleged assistance in thwarting the flow of illegal immigration.

“The United States of America has never been more committed to strengthening our partnership with the nations in the Northern Triangle to help tackle the problems facing our shared neighborhood,” Vice President Mike Pence said last October, speaking to Central American leaders at the State Department.

Closing the United States border with Mexico, whether completely or in part, would almost certainly affect trade and commerce between the two nations and pose a risk to the American economy. Also of concern is the prospect that those who regularly commute to and from both the United States and Mexico would be left with little way to return.

A decision by Mr. Trump to close the border with Mexico would constitute a complete reversal in trade relations as the two nations reached a new trilateral trade agreement with Canada last August, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is still awaiting approval from both chambers of Congress.

Mr. Trump has been aggravated at Mexico and its president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in recent weeks over his refusal to recognize self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader, according to two senior administration officials.

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