DIEGO ORE
US President Joe Biden wants three Central American countries to crack down on corruption as part of a plan to spend billions of dollars in the region to stem illegal migration.
Yet accusations of graft and authoritarianism dog some of very leaders Biden must work with in Central America, feeding concerns about their desire to clean up government.
Since taking office in January, Biden’s administration has pledged to set up a regional task force to fight graft, and threatened to freeze US bank accounts of corrupt officials in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — three countries known as the Northern Triangle that account for much of undocumented immigration to the United States.
With apprehensions at the US-Mexican border at their highest level in two decades, Biden is pursuing a $4 billion plan in Central America.
Washington regards corruption and poor governance, alongside poverty and violence, as key factors behind Central American emigration, and is worried that any US financial aid for the region could fall prey to corruption.
The Biden administration is urging the region’s governments to meet targets on combating corruption, to support judicial and electoral independence, and to protect human rights, a US State Department official said.
Leaders in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador need to oversee “systemic change’’, the official said.
“We’re not going to be able to have a close partnership with governments that are not committed to working against corruption’’, Brendan O’Brien, acting head at the US Embassy in San Salvador, said.
The region’s record on corruption is patchy.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is himself under investigation by US prosecutors for alleged links to drug cartels and has warned that the allegations could harm international cooperation. He denies any involvement in drug smuggling. His brother was sentenced to life in prison for narcotics trafficking by a US court last month.
To many in Washington, Honduras is the main worry in Central America. Elections to replace Hernandez are due in November but several of the front-runners have already been embroiled in corruption probes.
In El Salvador, the growing concentration of power by President Nayib Bukele, who last year sent troops into the national parliament to pressure lawmakers into approving law and order legislation, also unsettles US officials.
Bukele has criticised Biden’s plans as a rehash of the Obama-era Alliance for Prosperity, a regional economic development scheme, which he said failed to yield results. — Reuters
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