SUMMARY: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen recently declared a "compact” with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, aiming to reduce their migration to the U.S. But since then, the Trump administration said it will cut aid to those countries, including to programs that seek to address the violence and poverty making their residents desperate to flee. John Yang talks to Nick Schifrin for more.
SUMMARY:The deadly stranglehold of gang violence in Honduras drives tens of thousands of desperate residents to flee north to request asylum in the U.S. But few receive it, often due to a lack of documentation of the persecution they faced at home. Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports from San Pedro Sula with harrowing stories of the fates of migrants who made it to the U.S., only to be deported.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Next, Outside of a war zone, this is the most dangerous place on earth, San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras, at the crossroads of drug shipments from South America to the United States.
More than 1,200 people were killed in the city last year, more than 7,000 in the country. Thanks to those ongoing drug wars, it has the highest per capita murder rate in the world.
Our story comes from filmmaker Guillermo Galdos, who spent a week in Honduras on assignment for Britain's Channel 4 News.
A warning: The images and the details in this report are disturbing.
GUILLERMO GALDOS, filmmaker: Friday night at the main hospital in San Pedro Sula, the casualties would in, this man barely alive shot twice in the head. The hospital is so busy that even a dying man has to wait 24 hours for an operation.
The United States military has brought lessons from the past decade of conflict to the drug war being fought in the wilderness of Miskito Indian country, constructing this remote base camp with little public notice but with the support of the Honduran government.
It is one of three new forward bases here — one in the rain forest, one on the savanna and one along the coast — each in a crucial location to interdict smugglers moving cocaine toward the United States from South America.
Honduras is the latest focal point in America’s drug war. As Mexico puts the squeeze on narcotics barons using its territory as a transit hub, more than 90 percent of the cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela bound for the United States passes through Central America. More than a third of those narcotics make their way through Honduras, a country with vast ungoverned areas — and one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the world.
This new offensive, emerging just as the United States military winds down its conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and is moving to confront emerging threats, also showcases the nation’s new way of war: small-footprint missions with limited numbers of troops, partnerships with foreign military and police forces that take the lead in security operations, and narrowly defined goals, whether aimed at insurgents, terrorists or criminal groups that threaten American interests.
The effort draws on hard lessons learned from a decade of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq, where troops were moved from giant bases to outposts scattered across remote, hostile areas so they could face off against insurgents.
But the mission here has been adapted to strict rules of engagement prohibiting American combat in Central America, a delicate issue given Washington’s messy history in Honduras, which was the base for the secret operation once run by Oliver North to funnel money and arms to rebels fighting in neighboring Nicaragua. Some skeptics still worry that the American military might accidentally empower thuggish elements of local security forces.
In past drug operations, helicopters ferrying Honduran and American antinarcotics squads took off from the capital, Tegucigalpa, whenever an intelligence task force identified radar tracks of a smuggler’s aircraft. The three-hour flights required to reach cartel rendezvous points did not leave much idle time to spot airplanes as they unloaded tons of cocaine to dugout canoes, which then paddled downriver beneath the jungle canopy to meet fast boats and submersibles at the coast for the trip north.
In creating the new outposts — patterned on the forward bases in Iraq and Afghanistan that gave troops a small, secure home on insurgent turf — spartan but comfortable barracks were built. Giant tanks hold 4,500 gallons of helicopter fuel. Solar panels augment generators. Each site supports two-week rotations for 55 people, all no more than 30 to 45 minutes’ flying time from most smuggling handoff points.
Before his assignment to Central America, Col. Ross A. Brown spent 2005 and 2006 in Iraq as commander of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment’s Third Squadron, responsible for southern Baghdad. It was a time so violent that President George W. Bush ordered an increase in troop levels to retake the initiative.
Colonel Brown is now commander of Joint Task Force-Bravo, where he and just 600 troops are responsible for the military’s efforts across all of Central America. He is under orders to maintain a discreet footprint, supporting local authorities and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which leads the American counternarcotics mission.
American troops here cannot fire except in self-defense, and they are barred from responding with force even if Honduran or Drug Enforcement Administration agents are in danger. Within these prohibitions, the military marshals personnel, helicopters, surveillance airplanes and logistical support that Honduras and even the State Department and D.E.A. cannot.
“By countering transnational organized crime, we promote stability, which is necessary for external investment, economic growth and minimizing violence,” Colonel Brown said. “We also are disrupting and deterring the potential nexus between transnational organized criminals and terrorists who would do harm to our country.”
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Fire engulfed a 1940s-era prison in Honduras overnight. By late today, 272 inmates were confirmed dead, but officials said the number was expected to go much higher. More than 450 others escaped with their lives.
Margaret Warner has our story.
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour):This shaky cell phone video captured the fearful scenes, flames raging into the night sky. Honduran television showed the fast-moving blaze burning out of control at the prison.
Workers at a nearby hotel said it took 20 to 30 minutes for the first fire crews to arrive. Even then, firefighters said at least 100 inmates died in their cells, screaming for help. Some inmates were set free. Rescuers carried injured prisoners outside. And many of those died later of burns and smoke inhalation.
In short order, grieving relatives gathered outside the prison in Comayagua, a city in central Honduras, about 45 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa. As dawn came, people tried to storm the gates of the prison to recover remains of their loved ones. Some threw rocks before being pushed back by security officers.
The president of the Central American nation, Porfirio Lobo, went on television with condolences and a promise of aid.
PORFIRIO LOBO, Honduran president (through translator): This is a very painful day for Honduras. We are very sorry about what happened. And I want to express my solidarity with the relatives of those who lost their life in the prison in Comayagua. We are going to give all the medical assistance to the injured.
MARGARET WARNER: The cause of the fire remained in question. Some survivors said an inmate had screamed, "We will all die here," and then set his mattress ablaze in his cell.
As rescue workers removed the bodies, President Lobo suspended the officials in charge of the prison and vowed to get answers.
PORFIRIO LOBO (through translator): We will carry out a full investigation to find out what caused this sad and unacceptable tragedy and to find those responsible. It will be an independent investigation monitored by international observers.
MARGARET WARNER: Honduran prisons have long been notorious for overcrowding and violence.
The one in Comayagua reportedly was built for 400 people, but housed more than 800. There have been other deadly prison fires. In 2004, a blaze at state prison near Tegucigalpa killed more than 100 inmates.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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