The migrant caravans will keep coming. We need to lend a hand.

Here’s what’s missing in the press coverage of the migrant caravan heading towards the U.S. — any acknowledgement of the role this country has had in making countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras terrible places to live for all too many people.

True, the corruption in these countries is mostly homegrown, and so is a lot of the gang warfare and violence. But America, by its enthusiastic support of every single dictatorship — military or otherwise — in these lands has helped create an atmosphere of impunity, where the wealthy and powerful few feel they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.

In Guatemala, for example, the CIA helped overthrow a populist government which was pushing for land reform. That led to a 36-year long civil war (during which the U.S. trained the Guatemalan army) in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed, and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Today, the country is run by a democratically elected president who, backed by his country’s military, has pledged to shut down a UN-sponsored anti-corruption body, which just happens to be investigating the president and his family.

In Nicaragua, the U.S. supported a 40-year-long dictatorship, and when an opposition force rose up to oppose it, we actively funded the pro-dictatorship group known as the Contras.

In Honduras, the leader of a 2009 coup that overthrew a democratically elected government was a military officer trained in the U.S. Following the overthrow, the U.S. declined to suspend aid to the country.

And MS-13? The violent gang that has become one of President Trump’s favorite bete noirs? It was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s mostly by El Salvadoran immigrants who had fled that country’s long civil war (in which the U.S. sided with a vicious right-wing government responsible for the vast majority of the killings, kidnappings and torture). During an anti-gang crackdown in the 1990s, many gang members were shipped back to their home countries, where they established MS-13 offshoots. Which helped to further destabilize those places.

My point with this short history lesson is twofold: to establish that we bear a certain amount of responsibility regarding the poor conditions south of the border, and that the countries involved do not have the wherewithal — financially, politically, morally — to correct them on their own. Building a wall will not change things. Taking away our aid to these countries will only make them more desperate. Heated rhetoric will not make these conditions go away.

My solution? How about a Marshall Plan for Central America? It seems to me if we could pour billions of dollars into Western Europe after WW II to help stabilize those countries and restore their economies, we can do the same for our southern neighbors. Given the corruption and lack of strong civic institutions in these lands, this obviously won’t be an easy task. But it’s worth a try. There are, after all is said and done, honest actors in all these countries, and non-governmental organizations, both local and international, that would be more than willing to get involved.

If we don’t lend a hand, the caravans will keep on coming, the poverty and violence will not end, and we will be stuck in a roundelay of hatred, bombastic language and endless, racist fear of the Other. The U.S. can exert some real moral leadership here. The question is, are we up to it?

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 9:17 AM.