The reason many Guatemalans are coming to the border? A profound hunger crisis.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The reason many Guatemalans are coming to the border? A profound hunger crisis.

By Kevin Sieff
April 1, 2021 at 5:36 p.m. EDT

PANZÓS, Guatemala — The team of nutritionists looked at 11-month-old Dilcia Cajbon, her ribs visible through her skin, and they knew immediately.

“Severe acute malnutrition,” said Stefany Martinez, the leader of the UNICEF team, as the child was lifted onto a scale.

Like many in this rural stretch of Guatemala, Dilcia’s family was down to one meal a day. Storms had flooded the nearby palm plantation, the biggest source of local employment. To eke out what little the family had to eat, Dilcia’s mother had held off on giving her youngest child solid food.

As more and more Central American families arrive at the United States’ southern border, the municipality of Panzós offers a stark illustration of the deepening food crisis that is contributing to the new wave of migration.

So far this year, more unaccompanied minors processed by immigration agents are from Guatemala than any other country. Analysts and U.S. officials refer obliquely to “poverty” as an underlying cause of that influx. But often the reason is far more specific: hunger.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/02/us-border-migrants-guatemala/

[SunSeeker]

1. So sad. Starvation in our hemisphere.

[Karadeniz]

2. The immigration crisis will continue until we help make Central America livable and it won't happen

By itself.

[jimfields33]

3. What about their president?

We never hear from the presidents of other countries trying to fix things. Does the population like their current President? Do they have a congress? Just strange that we don’t hear from anybody at all.

[SharonAnn]

4. Unfortunately, the US policies in the last century have made it unlivable, but

It helped multinational corporations and corrupt politicians very rich.

[Karadeniz]

6. We could have spent our money so much more wisely.

[Grins]

5. Yes. The problem with our border...

...is in those countries. It is THERE, not HERE.

Why would anyone up and leave ALL they know and love to WALK a thousand miles while evading bandits the entire way to come to a country that most likely will hound and harass them for years?

There is only one reason that makes sense: Because that is better than what is happening their home countries.

Fix that problem there and our “crisis” here disappears.

[Karadeniz]

7. That's it!

[NickB79]

8. Central America is unable to farm enough food due to climate change

The rains have become erratic, leading to crop failures and malnutrition. Drought one year, floods and hurricanes the next. And that's with only 1C of warming so far.

We've already locked in another 1.5-2C degrees of warming in this century alone, even if we follow the Paris Accords. I don't know if the problem is fixable anymore in our lifetimes, even with immediate, drastic action on carbon emissions.

Expect a LOT more climate refugees in the future.

[Karadeniz]

9. So, those countries contributing the most to climate change are the culprits. I guess that puts

India and China at the top of the list. That means the rest of the world needs to do more to offset them. I sure wish we had some solutions for Central America.

[NickB79]

10. As with all things related to climate change, it requires a global effort

Because in 20 years, those climate refugees waves won't just be 3rd World citizens. They'll also include American, Chinese, Indian and European citizens, fleeing rising sea levels, crop failures, wildfires and megadroughts.