I’m a US Citizen Living in Honduras. Here’s What I Think About the Caravan.

THE STREAM ^ | 11/28/2018 | By JENNIFER ZILLY CANALES

[SeekAndFind]

Jennifer Zilly Canales is a U.S. citizen and Christian missionary who has served in Honduras full-time since 2012. She and her husband Darwin are foster parents to seven precious Honduran children ages 10-18 and serve as executive directors and teachers at the Living Waters Ranch mission school for local at-risk youth. She maintains a blog at: www.HiddenTreasuresinHonduras.com.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Welfare recipients in America live like kings as compared to hard-working Hondurans. That’s why they come.

[dadfly]

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[ClearCase_guy]

Just two weeks ago, a single father who had his three children in our school suddenly decided to withdraw them from our program and join the illegal caravan in hopes of a better future.

The whole "asylum" thing is a total lie.

[MortMan]

The economic refugee caravans are illegal in US *and* international law. They are immoral, as the intent of organizers is to break the back of the US Government’s constitutional charge to protect against invasion.

The answer is, and must be, a resounding “NO” from this side of the US border.

[Hostage]

Jennifer didn’t explain how it is that this ‘spontaneous’ organizing appeared coincidentally with President Trump’s orders to stop asylum.

People don’t suddenly run into the streets with a plan to storm the US border.

There had to be organizers behind it.

But if Jennifer had reported on who was really behind it, she and her adopted children would be walking dead.

[PGR88]

Honduras should offer itself as a colony to some superior nation. Seems like the only chance of reform.

[Truth29]

"But if Jennifer had reported on who was really behind it, she and her adopted children would be walking dead."

Yes, and I fear that after this article is read in Honduras that the follow on will be that she has been murdered as an object lesson to anyone who opposes the criminal elements both in Honduras and paying for the attempted US invasion.

[Moonman62]

I personally feel very uncomfortable about the chaos many of the uneducated immigrants will thrust upon the United States.

...

But Democrats and corrupt Republicans are very comfortable with it. The more chaos in society, the less they will be held accountable for their corruption.

[sphinx]

The "refugees" are mostly military aged men. Take volunteers for a Honduran Foreign Legion. Tell the men they will be well-trained, well-armed and well-supported by the U.S. … and when the time comes, they will go back to Honduras to liberate the country from corrupt politicians and drug lords. Tell the Honduran government that they are coming if Honduras doesn't clean up its own act first.

When the UN objects, tell the members of the UN that we will ship the Honduran immigrants to whichever country wants to take them.

[jagusafr]

A heart for ministry, for certain. An excellent synopsis of the problem - it’s a mindset developed by dealing with a culture of corruption, greed and apathy. I’ve lived in Venezuela and Panama and I can relate. What many of us American military types who have lived there want most is for these people to rise up and water the tree of liberty, but most of us don’t want to get entangled in yet another nation-building rescue mission. It’s a real conundrum.

[Baynative]

LATINOUSA -

The Nation story, written by Greg Grandin, revisited [Hillary] Clinton and her role in Honduras after the murder of indigenous and environmental rights leader Berta Cáceres made global headlines last week. In his piece, Grandin, who covered the 2009 coup, wrote:

Cáceres was a vocal and brave indigenous leader, an opponent of the 2009 Honduran coup that Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, made possible. In The Nation, Dana Frank and I covered that coup as it unfolded. Later, as Clinton’s emails were released, others, such as Robert Naiman, Mark Weisbrot, and Alex Main, revealed the central role she played in undercutting Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, and undercutting the opposition movement demanding his restoration. In so doing, Clinton allied with the worst sectors of Honduran society.

In a 2015 op-ed for Al Jazeera America, Weisbrot referred to what Clinton wrote about Honduras in her memoir, Hard Choices:

In “Hard Choices,” Clinton describes her role in the aftermath of the coup that brought about this dire situation. Her firsthand account is significant both for the confession of an important truth and for a crucial false testimony.

First, the confession: Clinton admits that she used the power of her office to make sure that Zelaya would not return to office. “In the subsequent days [after the coup] I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary [Patricia] Espinosa in Mexico,” Clinton writes. “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.”

[tired&retired]

“Let’s go to USA where even the poor people are FAT!

[Steve_Seattle]

"What many of us American military types who have lived there want most is for these people to rise up and water the tree of liberty, but most of us don’t want to get entangled in yet another nation-building rescue mission. It’s a real conundrum."

Exactly. Some of us send money to organizations that provide farm animals, fruit trees, clean water, medicine, school equipment, and other supplies that try to foster self-sufficiency in rural third world populations, but when the governments are corrupt and/or ineffective, we sometimes wonder if our efforts are in vain.

When people call these countries "s*ith*le" countries, they are not talking about the common people or the landscape, but about the governments.

[Boomer]

You speak the truth methinks. Perhaps there will be a way to provide small arms to a home grown army that wants to squash the gangs and corruption.

Of course the risk is a new gang rising up that we armed.

[Perseverando]

Thanks for posting.

A very worthwhile read to get an on the ground firsthand account of what is going on with those joining the caravan to the US.

[frog in a pot]

From the article:
Some are indeed refugees seeking legitimate asylum.

A quick read of the author's website makes it appear she and her family are doing very good, dedicated and inspiring work on the ground in Honduras. She and her husband appear to be nourishing the growth of a better future for Honduras.

Two sincere questions for the author:
"Can you give us examples of such legitimate asylum claims?"
"By what objective means does the U.S. determine a claim is legitimate?"

[Gasshog]

And the moral of the story is

Leave your suburban life in Texas to live in a sh!thole country and you’ll get the Darwin award!

[Rusty0604]

Very informative, thanks.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The problems she describes sound very much like U.S. ghettos. My wife also encountered the same mindset in special reading programs for Hispanic kids here in Silicon Valley. Mom and Dad did not value education at all. Generation after generation have said “sixth grade was good enough for my parents, it was good enough for me and it is good enough for my kids.”