In mid-October, what has come to be known as the “migrant caravan” departed Honduras for a weeks-long trek through Guatemala and Mexico to the United States.

The size of the caravan has fluctuated, but the United Nations calculated that, as of 22 October, some 7,200 people had joined up – many of them fleeing abysmal contexts of poverty and violence.

While the journey is an arduous one, the decision to travel as a large group mitigates the dangers generally faced by northward-bound migrants, including murder, disappearance, rape, and theft.

Of course, other obstacles still abound – among them US President Donald Trump, who quickly took to Twitter to announce that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” with the caravan and that “I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy [sic]”.

After all, what better way to attack the US than by walking there from Honduras?

A short history lesson

Though Trump subsequently admitted that there was actually “no proof” of the presence of “unknown Middle Easterners”, the “National Emergy” continues to rage – conveniently in the runup to midterm elections, for which Americans need to be repeatedly reminded of the ongoing existential battle against invading hordes of “Others”.

On October 25, the Washington Post reported that “800 to 1,000 more [US] troops, most of them active-duty forces from the Army”, will be deployed to the US-Mexico border in response to the caravan. Continue reading “Honduran Caravan is a result of Racist US Colonial Policy.”