Trump to cut Central America assistance

PRESIDENT Donald Trump said Monday the US will start cutting aid to three Central American countries as a caravan of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants rolled on toward the US border.

The UN said more than 7,000 people were now heading toward the US, as more migrants joined the original group, including some Central Americans who were already in Mexico.

Trump meanwhile kept up his almost-daily Twitter attacks on the approaching caravan, calling it a national emergency and saying he had alerted the US border patrol and military.

“We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid that the US gives Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,” said the president.

“Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the southern border of the US. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in,” he added.

Mexican authorities had managed to block the migrants on the Mexico-Guatemala border after they burst through a series of barriers on the Guatemalan side on Friday. But many later crossed the river in makeshift rafts before marching north.

L a t e Mon d a y Me x i c o a l lowe d s e v e r a l hu nd r e d Honduran migrants who are pa r t of t he ca rava n i nto its ter r itor y, a n i mmig r at ion of f icia l said.

The caravan resumed its journey Monday in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, setting out from Tapachula, near the border, for the town of Huixtla, around 40km away.

The caravan left San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras more than a week ago.

Many of the migrants are fleeing poverty and insecurity in Honduras, where powerful street gangs rule their turf with brutal violence.

With a homicide rate of 43 per 100,000 citizens, Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world, according to a Honduran university study.

US aid to the region had already been on the decline.

It went from $750 million in 2016 to $655 million last year, and is on track to fall to $615 million this year, according to the Washington Office on Latin America.

St i l l, it is v it a l money for countries such as Honduras, which received $181.7 million last year.

T he f ig u r e i s a si z eable chunk for a nation whose government budget is less t han $10 bil lion.