ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras responded to the pressures of the Trump administration. These countries enforced migration containment according to their political and diplomatic needs, turning migrant workers into bargaining chips with Washington, rather than subjects of rights.
It covers how the Central American exodus is triggered by extractive economies, systemic violence, environmental degradation, and the cooptation of the State by organized crime. The Trump administration did not address these root causes. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated the situation.
Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocol “Remain in Mexico” program resulted in the abandonment of tens of thousands of migrants to the hands of criminal bands along Mexico’s northern border, which derived into a terrible humanitarian crisis for Central American migrants and asylum seekers.
Finally, it includes an analysis of how Mexico turned its migration policy into an extension of US policy, in open contradiction to the humanitarian focus announced at the beginning of the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO). Trump’s blackmailing – “either you contain Central American migrants and asylum seekers, or I will place tariffs on your products” – forced Mexico to become the wall.
