History Matters: The Bloody U.S. Dirty Wars In Central America Set The Stage For Today’s Refugee Crisis

“The U.S. set a house on fire.”

By Jeremy Scahill
The Intercept (12/2/18)

The world watched in horror as U.S. Border Patrol agents opened fire with tear gas on a group of refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Among the targets of this assault by U.S. forces were women and children, many of whom who fled Honduras.

Across the news media, these refugees are simply referred to as “migrants,” or “the caravan.” Rarely do we get any context of why they are risking their lives and the lives of their children to flee Honduras. And part of why we don’t hear the context is because to really tell this story, you need to talk about the U.S. dirty wars in Central America in the 1980s, the impact of neoliberal economic policies, and the catastrophe of climate change caused by the U.S. and other major world powers. You need to know history.

And if you know this history, particularly in Honduras, then you know that what we are seeing now is a situation where the U.S. set a house on fire and as the flames have raged, the U.S. is standing against the people trying to flee the fire that Washington set to their home.

Link to Story and 9-Minute Video

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