A senior U.S. source said yesterday that the Biden administration is contemplating forming a task force made up of officials from the US Justice and State Departments and other agencies to assist local prosecutors in fighting corruption in Central America’s Northern Triangle countries.
Ricardo Zuniga, the United States’ special envoy for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, also told reporters that Congress had given the U.S. government permission to create a list of corrupt Central American officials, cancel their travel permits, and apply financial sanctions on them.
Zuniga spoke just days before Vice President Kamala Harris, appointed by President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic efforts with Central America, meets virtually with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday to discuss solutions to the surge in migration to the US-Mexico border.
Officials in the United States consider corruption as one of the main reasons for the migratory flow, along with poverty and gang violence, and want to ensure that a $4 billion aid package for the area does not fall victim to scam.
“It’s critical for the U.S. to demonstrate that we stand with individuals who are victims of corruption,” Zuniga added.
Biden is stepping up efforts to alleviate a humanitarian crisis that has been one of his first extensive tests, with apprehensions at the US-Mexico border at their worst level in two decades.
According to Zuniga, the task force under discussion would focus on corruption cases and assist prosecutors in those nations in moving ahead.
He expressed disappointment in the United States with the failure of anti-corruption committees in Guatemala and Honduras, which he saw as losses in attempts to combat “impunity.”
The Biden administration aims to restore some of these bodies’ duties, which President Donald Trump’s government weakened. However, political and commercial elites will be adamant in opposing the reinstatement of anti-graft groups.
With the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, a team of attorneys and investigators who worked with prosecutors, Guatemala pioneered an UN-backed methodology.
However, its work sparked a reaction, and it was postponed until 2019. A similar organization was shut down in Honduras.
Judge Gloria Porras was removed from Guatemala’s top court last week due to the country’s ongoing battle against famous anti-corruption activists.
“We have a mandate from the United States Congress to build lists of officials who are implicated in corruption and to suggest measures against them,” Zuniga said, issuing a warning.
He indicated such steps might include removing visas for persons accused of wrongdoing in the United States and the Justice and Treasury departments “designating” criminals. Sanctions generally include the freezing of U.S. assets and the prohibition of Americans doing business with them.
Zuniga presumably alluded to a statute proposed by then-U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel and passed by Congress in December that compels the State Department to compile an “Engel List” of corrupt people in the Northern Triangle 180 days. They would then be vulnerable to travel restrictions and property seizures in the United States.
