A couple years ago, while reporting on the sudden surge of Central American climate change refugees pouring into South Florida, I called up Guatemala鈥檚 then-environment minister, Alfonso Alonzo, to find out how the government was helping campesinos confront the eco-catastrophe.
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He unabashedly admitted he hadn鈥檛 much of a clue. He just as unabashedly admitted he had no environmental mitigation experience: he was a media consultant whom then Guatemalan President and clown-in-chief Jimmy Morales had given the job because he was a political crony.
鈥淏esides,鈥� Alonzo said, in a tone that seemed to suggest I was interrupting lunch, 鈥渢he U.S. is the country producing all the greenhouse emissions causing this problem. They鈥檙e the ones who should fix it.鈥�
I couldn鈥檛 help recalling that astonishing chat with Alonzo this week 鈥� when the U.S. did announce it will try to help fix it. Vice President Kamala Harris said that as part of an additional $310 million infusion of aid to Central America鈥檚 beleaguered Northern Triangle 鈥� Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras 鈥� the U.S. will allot $125 million to tackle the global warming-induced dust-bowl disaster plaguing the region鈥檚 agricultural zones. The larger goal, of course, is to curtail the illegal immigration from those zones amassing on the U.S. southern border.
READ MORE: Honduras' Crooked President Deserves the Same 'Gringo' Treatment Venezuela's Got
Real quickly here, I鈥檒l applaud the Biden Administration鈥檚 worthy, sensible efforts to address that migration at its source instead of at the border. But just as quickly, I鈥檒l urge the Administration to remember Alfonso Alonzo 鈥� because believe me, he鈥檚 the rule, not the exception, when it comes to the level of government aptitude in the Northern Triangle.
Yet that鈥檚 the level of government aptitude the U.S. is staring at to help administer its $310 million grant 鈥� not to mention the overall $4 billion Biden hopes to invest there.
Since political hacks are the Northern Triangle's administrative reality 鈥� and a big reason apocalyptic poverty and violence are its reality 鈥� the U.S. has to promote a new administrative reality.
I鈥檓 certainly not saying Biden should kibosh the idea because of all the Alfonso Alonzos. Fixing the crisis in Central America is the only long-term way to fix the crisis at the border. I am, however, saying that since political hacks are the Northern Triangle鈥檚 administrative reality 鈥� and since that's a big reason apocalyptic poverty and violent crime are the region's socio-economic reality 鈥� the U.S. might want to work harder at promoting a new administrative reality.
In other words, welcome to the U.S.鈥檚 Central American Catch-22 鈥� which it helped create over the past century.
COLD WAR PROXY
Washington鈥檚 chronic, cynical interventions there 鈥� especially its use of the isthmus as a bloody, Cold War proxy battlefield in the 1980s 鈥� helped spawn the hyper-corrupt and hyper-incompetent governments that still hold court today. Especially leaders like Morales and el miserable Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern谩ndez, whom U.S. federal prosecutors have fingered for aiding drug cartels (which he denies).
That鈥檚 the same hyper-corrupt and hyper-incompetent ruling class (Biden's top Latin America advisor, Juan Gonzalez, recently termed them "predatory elites") the U.S. is placing its $4 billion bet with.
And yet, if we were to bypass that cabal 鈥� let鈥檚 say, as hypothetical fantasy, Biden doesn鈥檛 let one Northern Triangle finger touch one U.S. aid dollar and mandates only yanqui personnel carry out every inch of the projects 鈥� we鈥檇 be doing nothing to create the kind of leadership and citizen engagement we need there to create the social and economic conditions that reduce mass migration.
But don鈥檛 forget, Biden supporters will say, the aid includes anti-corruption programs too. True, but they鈥檙e rarely enough. It seems the more substantive solution is to add something to the aid to-do list: identifying and recruiting these countries鈥� anti-Alfonso Alonzos as managers. Meaning, the usually younger, better trained, less corrupted and, yes, more idealistic folks proving their worth in government agencies, NGOs and private companies. They鈥檙e the Peace Corps types waiting to be found in countries where the U.S. usually sends the Peace Corps.
I鈥檝e seen American agencies like USAID locate them in places like Honduras. I鈥檝e watched institutions like the U.N. locate them in places like Guatemala 鈥� where anti-Alfonso Alonzos helped build the International Commission Against Impunity, or CICIG, which in recent years finally started bringing the country鈥檚 more sinister corruptos to trial.
CICIG was so successful that Morales parked army tanks in front of its offices and shut it down. But it showed the talent and character that exist there.
Talent and character that can give you a better return on $4 billion.
