Nurses on the health and disaster frontlines, and 400,000 people still in temporary shelters in Guatemala and Honduras

Honduran nurses, who are mostly women, have faced an extremely heavy burden this year. Fighting the pandemic from a weak hospital system and working extra-long hours, many also directly suffered at the hands of the two hurricanes last month and were left permanently or temporarily homeless. In addition, they report attacks from frightened community members, and extremely difficult working conditions.

We talked to various nurses who told us their personal stories. Pamela, for example, earns 16,000 lempiras a month (US$650), although the official monthly minimum wage for her occupation is 25,000 lempiras (US$1,000). This minimum wage was established in January per an agreement with the government. This income doesn’t allow her to buy more biosafety supplies.

“Because of the lack of accountability of our governments, health care workers everywhere are underpaid. Yet we’re always on the front lines during pandemics, natural disasters, and even if war breaks out. Who do they send? Hospital staff,” she says. On top of that, Pamela told us that most of her colleagues were single mothers. As the sole breadwinners for their families, they often work double shifts to survive.

💣💣Biden nomination unlikely to respect Central Americans’ needs

Biden's nomination for "defense" secretary (read arms industry and armed forces), Gen. Lloyd Austin, has generated concern, given his role on the board of Raytheon Technologies (one of the largest arms manufacturers) and the board of Nucor, a huge steel company. 

Beyond subcontracting to two major defense companies, Nucor has also been involved in a mining project in Honduras that protestors say will harm the environment, and it was a major donor to Trump's campaign. More on Nucor in Honduras here. 

👬👨🏿‍🤝‍👨🏿 Hondurans try to migrate north 👩🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏽👩🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏿

“There is nothing left in our country,” one migrant told us. In this video, a family cries in desperation after being told to go back, just short of the Guatemalan border.

The economic impact of the pandemic measures have been extremely tough on the majority of Hondurans. When that was combined with the two hurricanes and the flooding that followed, not to mention sustained levels of violence around the country, some people have been forced to leave. 

In this photo by our reporter, Alan Bu, migrants are being dispersed near the Honduran-Guatemalan border. Some traced their steps back, while others will try to cross at unmanned points.

The Honduran national police force set up checkpoints to prevent people reaching Guatemala, and so far hundreds have been turned back.

Dire situation continues in Guatemala and Honduras: hundreds of thousands are homeless

Over a month since tropical storms Eta and Iota devastated Honduras and Guatemala, more than 400,000 people remain in temporary shelters, the Norwegian Refugee Council reports.

According to the UN, 5.5 million people were affected by successive tropical storms Eta and Iota in the two countries. Some 140,000 homes were completely destroyed, and 330,000 people are still cut off from emergency assistance by destroyed roads and disrupted communications in Honduras.

This is in addition to an already existing humanitarian crisis in the area. Six months ago, 5.2 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance across Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala due to systemic and extreme violence, displacement, food insecurity and climate change. 
 

📜 Anniversary of massacre in El Salvador

Thirty-nine years ago this week, Salvadoran soldiers who had been trained and armed by the US, killed nearly a thousand villagers in El Mozote. Children were among the dead, and those responsible were never punished.

The massacre took place during the civil war. The village, however, had a reputation for neutrality, but the soldiers were part of an operation aimed at eliminating FMLN members. They killed people by slitting their throats, shooting them, and with torture, then burnt down the whole village.
 

🌎 Dispossession and resistance in Central America

Nacla’s winter issue of their magazine is focused on solidarity and struggles in Central America.

“Interventionist US foreign policies wrapped in the rhetoric of stemming migration, waging war on drugs, and stoking development continue to enable militarization, human rights abuses, and displacement,” they write.

The reverberations of the crisis of global capitalism are now pushing the region to the brink of a renewed collapse. And as we all hurtle toward climate catastrophe, Central America is one of the most vulnerable places, Nacla notes in this feature essay.

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