Vice President Kamala Harris’ First Visit to Guatemala Reveals a Legacy of Hypocrisy
Vice President Kamala Harris in Guatemala in June 2021, by the Office of Vice President of the United States.
“Do not come” were the three carefully chosen words Vice President Kamala Harris spoke, when addressing the nation of Guatemala and prospective Guatemalan migrants in June 2021. Harris’ visit to the Central American country was the premier part of her first overseas trip as Vice President. Though Vice President Harris is a first-generation American herself, a personification of the American dream achieved, her message to Guatemalan migrants seeking entrance to the United States was a prevailing echo of exclusion. The U.S. continues to discourage Guatemalan migrants even after President Donald Trump, who was notorious for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, has left the oval office.
Before the Biden administration, the Trump administration led a ruthless campaign to thwart migrants and asylum-seekers. Unfortunately, many of Trump’s policies (like Title 42, which expedites family deportations) and negative dialogues around Central American migrants remain. For the first several months of the Biden presidency, U.S. immigration policy has remained startlingly similar to the previous administration, despite Biden’s pro-immigrant tone on the campaign trail and Vice President Harris’ first-generation background.
It is crucial to question whether Vice President Harris and the Biden administration would need to discourage potential Guatemalan migrants if not for the lasting perils of U.S. destabilization in the region. The political instability, poverty, and violence that force Guatemalans to emigrate have close ties to American interests, particularly the State Department and the United Fruit Company, now known as the Chiquita Brands International. To create a more just immigration system, the United States must own up to its history of destabilization in Guatemala that has led to contemporary immigration and establish a comprehensive pathway to citizenship for Guatemalan migrants.
Laura E. Gómez, author of Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, writes how the United Fruit Company dominated Central American railroads and land in the early 20th century to maintain its fruit markets in the United States. Their presence in Central America allowed them to establish significant capital and political power. It even led to the term “Banana Republic,” a phrase used to denote a country whose politics and economy are controlled by a single export or company. Coinciding United Fruit’s rise to power, Guatemala’s anti-labor dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, exacerbated and upheld racism and severe class divides in the nation through federal deals with the company and its racially divided workforce.
Consequently, in 1920, the Guatemalan Unionist Party overthrew Cabrera, holding an election where the Unionists elected Carlos Herrera as president. However, Herrera’s victory was short-lived after a U.S.-backed military coup ousted him, supporting anti-labor efforts and limiting the Unionist Party’s attempt to eradicate national inequalities.
However, the fight against United Fruit and extortion did not end there. In 1944, Jacobo Árbenz, a pro-labor reformer, became the Guatemalan Minister of National Defense and developed a land reform bill, which intended to have United Fruit release its hold on Guatemalan land for popular redistribution. Árbenz was praised by Guatemalans, and in 1951, he became the second democratically elected president in the nation. Three years later, President Eisenhower ordered a CIA coup d’etat to overthrow Árbenz, undermining Árbenz’s attempted demands for land reform and reparations from United Fruit. The U.S. justified its political intervention by labeling Árbenz as a ‘communist’ threat to Latin America. Nevertheless, the upheaval of Guatemala’s young democracy undermined the maturing stability of the nation.
United Fruit heavily campaigned for this intervention. They convinced Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who had served as United Fruit’s former attorney, that President Árbenz was dangerous and radical. John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles, who was serving as CIA director, compelled President Eisenhower to act and stand with United Fruit. All the while, the United States hid its actions from the American public, as CIA involvement in the coup was not revealed publicly until 1999.
President Árbenz’s removal resulted in succeeding military and authoritarian governments, often funded by the United States, after the short-lived Guatemalan democracy. Additionally, it ignited the tensions that led to the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996 and killed over 200,000 civilians. According to a study completed by the Commission for Historical Clarification, 83 percent of those killed were Maya, indigenous peoples of Guatemala, and many consider the war an indigenous genocide.
Among the war militants were officers who had been funded or even trained by the United States. The same study from the Commission for Historical Clarification found U.S. military assistance to Guatemala had a “significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed confrontation.” Consequently, in 1999, President Bill Clinton apologized to Guatemala for the United States’ role in the civil war. However, an apology does not amend the harm done.
Despite the violence and destabilization the United States and the United Fruit Company caused, we have yet to see the necessary action and reparations to bring justice to Guatemala. The continual political instability, poverty, and gang violence—symptoms of the Guatemalan Civil War and a century of exploitation—in the region force some Guatemalans to emigrate. Today, around 49.3 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty, and the Northern Triangle countries—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—continue to have the highest intentional homicide rates in the world.
When addressing Guatemalan migration, Vice President Harris framed the issue like a Guatemalan domestic issue when, in reality, the United States played an irrevocable role in creating the conditions that continue to cause Guatemalans to emigrate. In light of the history of the United States’ involvement in Guatemala and Central America, continuously destabilizing the region in self-interest, the hypocrisy of Vice President Harris’ statement, “do not come,” is harshly underscored by the lack of acknowledgment and responsibility. Our current presidential administration must recognize the role the United States plays in contributing to the migration from Guatemala and Central America we see now.
Instead of telling Guatemalans not to come to our southern border, the Biden administration must create a path to American citizenship, specifically for Guatemalans, who the U.S. has historically exploited and marginalized for capital gain. If the Biden Administration developed a path to citizenship for Guatemalan migrants, including benefits like welfare, resettlement assistance, English-language courses, and health benefits, all of which Cuban refugees received, the U.S. could save Guatemalan lives and protect those migrating from exploitation once they enter the country. The United States must also work with Guatemala to correct systemic issues such as political instability, violence, and poverty. To fund these efforts, the U.S. should demand that Chiquita Brands International make reparations for their extortion of Guatemala. Not only must the U.S. own up to its past mistakes, but it must also enfranchise those who seek entry into our nation today as they escape the inhumane realities that the U.S. has created.
Isaiah Colmenero is a rising sophomore at Columbia College, hoping to major in Political Science and Ethnicity and Race Studies. As Isaiah is passionate about social justice, he hopes to commit his work to progressing racial justice in the United States.
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