In 1998, Hurricane Mitch ravaged Central America, killing more than 11,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage in one of the worst natural disasters in Atlantic history. Amid the devastation, Honduran President Carlos Flores Facussé issued a stark warning. Without foreign assistance, he said, migrants would go “walking, swimming and running up north.” In short order, U.S. President Bill Clinton took to the radio to promise that the United States would “spare no aid to the people of Central America,” who he called “our fellow Americans.” The international community likewise responded with billions of dollars in assistance for the region.
This November, two major hurricanes again hit the region in the span of about two weeks. It was one of Central America’s worst natural disasters since Hurricane Mitch, affecting roughly 7.2 million, including hundreds of thousands who lost everything when their homes were damaged or destroyed. Yet outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump has neither expressed any kind of solidarity with the people of the region, nor mobilized the support of the international community.
