Commentary: Get to the root of the migrant crisis
Opinion by Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Progressive Perspectives • 3h
If you care about the migrant crisis, you need to understand what’s happening to Indigenous people and the environment in Central America. Displacement is surging as hurricanes including Helene and Milton intensify due to climate change. Climate refugees, many of them Indigenous, continue arriving in the United States daily.
With each passing year, the impact of climate change becomes more severe. Relentless storms exacerbate precarious conditions in vulnerable communities and displace thousands, particularly in regions already facing environmental crises.
Climate change triggers migration and displacement by intensifying storms, worsening droughts, diminishing water supply and generating crop failures. Central America is convulsing with climate refugees fleeing areas where food doesn’t grow anymore. Fleeing families are seeking not only protection from environmental cataclysms, but also from the violence they exacerbate.
Human rights leader Berta Cáceres was gunned down in 2016 for her outspoken opposition to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project on the Gualcarque River in Honduras. It was a sobering reminder of the relentless violence Indigenous people and activists face. Only years later, in 2021 and 2022, were some of Berta’s assassins convicted and sentenced. Since the wheels of justice churn slowly for Indigenous people, too often the only option is fleeing.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/commentary-get-to-the-root-of-the-migrant-crisis/ar-AA1sXBZg?ocid=anaheim-ntp-feeds&pc=HCTS&cvid=04e5387e79d042b7bb6cdefd5ebefc0c&ei=158
