Guatemala City – Central American and Mexican activists are questioning their governments’ focus on security to address migration following meetings this week with US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

Nielsen met with Mexican officials on Tuesday and attended a summit Wednesday in Honduras with security ministers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The meetings dealt with border security and the ongoing exodus of Central American migrants and asylum seekers.

The summit in Honduras ended with the signing of a regional memorandum of cooperation between the three Central American countries and the United States. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the memorandum “aims to better synchronise cooperation between the countries in order to bolster border security, prevent the formation of new migrant caravans, and address the root causes of the migration crisis”.

In a series of tweets, Nielsen described the memorandum as a “first-ever regional compact” and “a HISTORIC agreement to confront the root causes of the crisis on our border”.

The sole focus of the memorandum, however, is security cooperation in four areas: human trafficking and smuggling; organised crime and gangs; intelligence sharing; and border security. It is a non-binding document that essentially entails a commitment to continue ongoing talks and cooperation efforts.

Addressing the factors behind migration from a security perspective is questionable, says Iduvina Hernandez, director of the Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy, a Guatemalan non-governmental organisation.

“It is accepted up to a certain point that insecurity and violence are a factor in driving certain populations to migrate,” Hernandez told Al Jazeera.

“The problem is standardising the approach to the origins of migration and instituting policies only on that basis,” she said.

Ignores historical and structural foundations

The approach also ignores the historical and structural foundations behind the insecurity and violence plaguing the region, according to Hernandez.  

“They have their point of departure in structural problems linked to inequality and linked to the issue of corruption,” she said. “In the case of Guatemala, it’s a framework of corruption that has completely co-opted the state.”

The Guatemalan Ministry of the Interior, which includes the national police force, is a case in point. Headed by Enrique Degenhart, who sat next to Nielsen during the recent summit in Honduras, the ministry has been embroiled in scandals for years. 

Degenhart’s initial vice minister, Kamilo Rivera, is accused of participating in a torture and extrajudicial execution ring run from within the ministry in the past and is now a fugitive from justice. Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, Degenhart’s predecessor, is on trial in Guatemala for corruption and has also been indicted in the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Defense suspended aid to several Guatemalan inter-agency task forces. The US halted training and equipment transfers to the task forces due to the repeated misuse of donated vehicles, Department of Defense spokesperson Johnny Michael told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

Jeep J8 vehicles donated for border region counter-narcotics task forces were deployed in August 2018 to the streets around the offices of a UN-backed anti-corruption commission, generating alarm and condemnations of intimidation and misuse.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, his relatives, and his political party had all come under investigation for corruption, and his attacks on the anti-corruption commission sparked a constitutional crisis that continues to fester.

Along with its suspension of aid to the inter-agency task forces, the US Department of Defense is also evaluating other transfers to Guatemala on a case-by-case basis.

“The Guatemalan government is a partner and supporter of US security efforts in the region. However, the repeated misuse of US-provided military vehicles has necessitated a review of support to security cooperation programmes,” Michael told Al Jazeera.

One day after the March 14 announcement, more than 130 donated Jeep J8s gradually all began arriving to capital city airport area air force base grounds, where they were lined up in front of a hangar used by the US. 

In response to criticism earlier this year, Guatemala’s secretary of state intelligence had offered to drop the jeeps off in front of the US Embassy and another defiant offer to return the donated vehicles seemed imminent. But after days of silence, the Guatemalan government claimed the jeeps had been recalled for mechanical review and deployed them back out into the country days later.

“It is very likely that that absurd action of positioning all the jeeps in front of the US hangar will also have consequences down the line,” said Hernandez.

Despite the military aid suspension and questionable Guatemalan government response, Nielsen cited “improved cooperation” with the Central American countries involved in the security cooperation memorandum.

‘Misguided’

Concerns about US security aid to Central American security forces goes far beyond the misuse of donated vehicles, however. State violence, extrajudicial killings, and repression have long been issues in the region, and ongoing abuses in Honduras have been of particular concern in recent years. 

Democratic Congresswoman Norma Torres criticised the memorandum in a statement Thursday, calling it a “misguided agreement” and highlighting the involvement of security forces with drug trafficking and organised crime.

“Far too many Central Americans have already suffered at the hands of corrupt and abusive security forces; they are demanding justice, not a blank check for soldiers and police,” wrote Torres.

Also on Thursday, Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson and his colleagues reintroduced the Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act. Named after a prominent Honduran indigenous rights and social movement activist murdered in 2016, the bill would place further restrictions and conditions on US aid to Honduran security forces.

“For years, members of the Honduras police and military have engaged in corrupt practices and gross human rights abuses without consequence. By limiting funding, we have the opportunity to force the Honduran government to investigate and prosecute these crimes,” Johnson said Thursday in a statement. 

Over the course of the past five months, Al Jazeera has spoken with many Hondurans who cited targeted repression and violence by state forces as their reason for fleeing north, though poverty, unemployment, and gang violence are more often cited. Individuals’ reasons vary, as does whether or not they travel in visible caravan groups, but either way, the exodus continues.

Mexican secretary of the interior Olga Sanchez said Wednesday that the Mexico is expecting a “mother of all caravans” from Honduras that could include as many as 20,000 people. Her comments came on the heels of a meeting Tuesday with Nielsen.

Announcements for a Honduran caravan leaving Saturday from San Pedro Sula have been circulating on social media, but the source of Sanchez’s dubious claims concerning its size is unclear. Honduran deputy foreign affairs minister Nelly Jerez contested the claim.

“Intelligence forces, not just those from Honduras but also the ones that were here meeting with secretary Nielsen in a Northern Triangle meeting we had in our country, none of us has any information about the formation of a mass departure or mobilisation of people,” Jerez said Thursday in an interview with Mexican newspaper El Sol de Mexico. 

Migrant rights activist group Pueblo Sin Fronteras accused Sanchez of serving Trump’s immigration policy interests by inciting fear to justify harsh measures against Central American migrants.

“The only certainty is that after the meeting with Nielsen, the Mexican government put forward the ‘mother of all caravans’ idea in its discourse to justify the US mandated containment,” the group said Thursday in a public statement.

Sanchez also announced the Mexican government was sending federal police and other personnel to set up immigration checkpoints in southern Mexico, where a caravan of some 2,500 people, most of them Central Americans, has been gradually advancing northward this week.

Trump threatens to close the border

Meanwhile, Trump appeared to contradict Neilsen’s celebration of the regional security cooperation memorandum, accusing Central American countries and Mexico of “doing nothing”.

On Thursday, he threatened to close the southern border in a tweet, saying “Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country”.

He added, “Likewise Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing”.

Trump has made the threat several times before, but has never acted. On Friday, he repeated the threat, however, saying he would close the border next week if “Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug (sic) our Southern Border”.

Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, responded, saying “Mexico doesn’t act based on threats”.

Gaza – At a medical clinic in Gaza, with a pair of crutches beside him, 22-year-old Imad Hassan Khalifa recalled the reasons he started taking part in the weekly Great March of Return protests along the Israeli fence last year.

“I participated in all of the demonstrations,” he said. “Life, economic conditions and a state of frustration have driven me, along with many youths, to go regardless of the outcomes. I was shot in my legs with explosive bullets.”

Khalifa said that after he was wounded at a protest in October, he travelled to Egypt for treatment but was told by a doctor there that it would be a lengthy process.

Now, he visits a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza for physiotherapy and to have the dressings on his wounds changed.

“The clinic has become a forum for us wounded people. We always console each others as we share the suffering and wounds. We always sit laughing and exchanging jokes mocking our fates, while waiting our turn to receive treatment.”

As Palestinians mark a year of weekly demonstrations on Saturday, dubbed the Great March of Return, medical groups operating in the coastal enclave have expressed concern over the thousands of people who have been wounded.

The protests began as a grassroots campaign, calling for the right of refugees and their descendants to return to the homes and lands from which they were violently expelled in 1948.

MSF said Gaza had been “completely abandoned” over the past 12 months of rallies, and that “the more than 6,500 people shot by Israeli forces during the protests have been largely left to their fate.”

According to the medical charity, the vast majority of those injured had suffered leg wounds.

“These are not simple wounds that can be easily stitched up. Huge chunks of legs have been blown out and the bones within shattered,” the group said.

At the moment, Gaza does not have the capacity to treat all of its patients. 

“We have a situation where the health system is overwhelmed, although MSF is doing all it can, we also won’t be able to treat all those patients,” Melki said.

Before the anniversary of the Great March of Return protests, MSF said its teams were gearing up for a “state of emergency”.

“We’re increasing our bed capacity,” Melki said. “We are preparing for the worst scenario, as everybody thinks [like this] in Gaza.”

According to health officials in Gaza, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the protests.

Human rights groups have accused Israel of excessive and unlawful use of force against unarmed protesters.

About 80 percent of the Gaza population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, while the strip experiences regular power outages and high unemployment. It has been dubbed as the world’s largest open-air prison, with Palestinians needing Israeli army permits to enter and exit the enclave.

March 30 marks a year since Palestinians began the ‘Great March of Return’ protests at the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians have been gathering at that fence every Friday after noon prayers, demanding the right to return to the land from which their families were expelled, during Israel’s founding in 1948. 

Since the protests began, at least 250 people have been killed and thousands more wounded by Israeli fire. 

The United Nations says more than 120 people have had one or both legs amputated, while UN investigators say Israel has committed war crimes against protesters. 

All this, at a time of heightened tension in the region. So what’s the way forward? 

Presenter: Divya Gopalan

Guests:Mukhaimer Abu Saada – Professor of political science at Al Azhar University in Gaza

Mitchell Barak – CEO of Keevoon Global Research, adviser to ex-Israeli President Shimon Peres, and speechwriter for former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

Saleh Higazi – Deputy regional director for Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International

Source: Al Jazeera News

Mueller Report

William Barr writes he has ‘no plans’ to give Trump or the White House a chance to review the report before its release.

Attorney General William Barr said Friday he’s prepared to share a redacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report with lawmakers and the public by mid-April “if not sooner” and indicated he’s prepared to testify to Congress by early May.

In a letter to Congress, Barr wrote he has “no plans” to give President Donald Trump or the White House a chance to review the report before its release, ensuring that there could not be broad claims of executive privilege. Barr cited Trump’s public statements deferring to him.

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“Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr stated.

Barr emphasized that he would be removing four categories of information from the nearly-400-page report: grand jury information, information related to intelligence sources and methods, information pertinent to ongoing investigations and anything that could harm the “reputational interests” of “peripheral third parties.” The scale of these redactions may determine how much of a fight Barr is in for with House Democrats, who have demanded the entire report and its underlying evidence.

House Democrats don’t appear willing to wait for Barr’s timetable. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said an April 2 deadline set by his committee to access the full report “still stands.” He said Congress expects to see the report without redactions and to review all of its underlying evidence by that date.

In addition, he and other Democrats are asking Barr to join them before a judge to release grand jury information so that Barr doesn’t need to redact it.

“There is ample precedent for the Department of Justice sharing all of the information that the Attorney General proposes to redact to the appropriate congressional committees,” Nadler said.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary panel, said Friday in a tweet that Nadler “stands alone in setting arbitrary deadlines for that release and in calling the attorney general to break the law by releasing the report without redactions.”

There has been intense pressure on Barr to release the full report that Mueller submitted at the conclusion of his probe into the Trump campaign’s links to Russian operatives working to interfere in the 2016 election. According to Barr, the special counsel concluded that Trump’s campaign did not criminally conspire with the Russian government to sway the election. But Mueller did not deliver a final verdict on whether the president obstructed justice.

In his letter, Barr bristled at what he described as an inaccurate characterization of the four-page memo he issued last week regarding Mueller’s report. Barr said he never intended that memo to be construed as an exhaustive summary of Mueller’s findings. Rather, he said, it was a summary of Mueller’s “principal conclusions” — the “bottom line” of his findings.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Barr on Thursday for going beyond Mueller’s report and deciding that Trump should be absolved of obstruction of justice even though Mueller found evidence to support both sides of the question. Mueller explicitly opted to “not exonerate” Trump, a head-scratching phrase that has led Democrats to demand more details from the report itself.

Barr’s initial summary of Mueller’s conclusions also omitted central swaths of the areas Mueller investigated, including whether he reached counterintelligence findings that might show whether any Americans were compromised by Russians even if they committed no crimes. Barr said the report was nearly 400 pages but that it also included additional appendices and tables.

Hundreds of thousands of Algerians have marched through the streets of the capital and other major cities for a sixth straight Friday to demand the immediate departure of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the ruling elite.

The latest rallies came days after Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah, the powerful army chief, called for the application of a provision in the Algerian constitution that could remove the president on account of his failing health. 

Under Article 102, the Constitutional Council could decide that a sitting head of state is no longer capable of fully exercising their functions and ask Parliament that they be declared unfit to rule. 

But opposition figures and protesters rejected Salah’s move, saying it came too late and describing it as another attempt by the ruling class to maintain the status quo. 

“I march today against the enforcement of Article 102,” Massinissa, a 36-year-old filmmaker protesting in Algiers on Friday, told Al Jazeera.

“Yes, I want to see Bouteflika out but I also want the old guard that has ruled Algeria since 1962 to leave,” Massinissa added, referring to the year the North African country declared independence.

Changing the system 

Aged 82, Bouteflika has made just a handful of public appearances since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013, which has confined him to a wheelchair and damaged his ability to speak. 

Despite his ailing health, Bouteflika continued enjoying the support of Algeria’s powerbrokers, including the military, and went ahead to win presidential elections in 2014.

His supporters credit him for his role in Algeria‘s independence struggle against colonial France, as well as ending a destructive civil war that claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 Algerians throughout the 1990s.

His critics, however, argue he has overstayed his welcome.

“We have been dealing with a presidential vacuum for nearly seven years,” said Karim Mesbah, a 48-year-old shopkeeper. “It is too late to enforce Article 102 of the Constitution.”

Authorities have struggled to deal with the current wave of protests, the biggest in Algeria for decades.

Amid mounting public anger, Bouteflika first gave in to protesters’ demands while in Switzerland on medical leave on March 2, saying he would step down within a year if reelected in the April polls.

His move, however, failed to appease demonstrators who continued taking to the streets.

On March 11, Bouteflika said he would not seek reelection but also cancelled the much-awaited polls, vowing to hand over power to a successor “chosen by the people” after a new constitution is approved and a national conference is held.

In response, opposition parties and protesters accused Bouteflika of attempting to illegally extend his fourth term in office, set to expire on April 28. 

“A transition can take six months, a year or two. Regardless of how long it lasts, I will be here, in the streets, fighting for people’s rights,” Lynda, a retiree in Algiers said, adding that protesters would continue taking to the streets until “real change” took place.

“We want to put an end to this military regime and a civilian government that enshrines human rights in the constitution.” 

Djamila Ould Khettab contributed to this report from Algiers