US Congress likely to finance plan to further militarize and privatize Central America

Recent moves in Congress suggest that it will approve a billion dollar initiative on the part of the Obama administration to “assist” Central America. Known as the Alliance for Prosperity, the plan was largely developed by US officials and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is currently notorious for promoting privatization of water in El Salvador and education in Honduras.

The House Appropriations Committee approved of $296 million in aid to the region’s security forces with a set of conditions that are intended to stop the flow of asylum seekers to the US’ southern border and would likely result in the “militarization of regional borders.”

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve of $675 million in financing for US activity in Central America for 2016, which is about double the amount to be spent this year. The Senate’s version contains a couple of feel-good measures such as requirements that governments in the region combat corruption, enable transparency and tame human rights violations committed by security forces in order to receive aid. It also contains a requirement that the State Department issue statements on each government’s commitment to their “investment climate,” an obviously neo-liberal metric that would equate deregulation and privatization with progress.

Source: Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, 17 July 2015