MEDIA REACTION ON QUARANTINE NOVEMBER 14, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002401

SIPDIS

FOR PD/WHA (RQUIROZ),IIP/G/WHA, WHA/CEN, AND PRM
INFO IIP/T/ES
EMBASSIES FOR PAOS, IOS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP PREL SMIG KPAO HO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON QUARANTINE NOVEMBER 14, 2005

1. On 11/14 the Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La
Tribuna" published an editorial entitled "Quarantine." "We
have said recently that we need to worry about the large
number of deportees from the United States that have been

returned to Central American countries. This is especially
true for Honduras with 14,905 deportees this year who have
been returned because they were in the United States
illegally and did not possess papers to benefit from the
TPS.

"We have to add to this number 61,389 Hondurans who have
been returned from Guatemala and Mexico en route to the
`American Dream.' Excluded are those who never arrived
anywhere, asphyxiated within the cars of a train, suffocated
by the heat, or victims of other mishaps encountered on
their paths."

"Some of these deportees were captured because they were
involved in illegal activities or drug trafficking, murder,
or other crimes. This is a grave situation because the
gangs in Central America are linked to exactly these types
of activities. Immigrants who left for the United States
applied what they had learned in the ghettos of Honduras to
new locales and when they ran into the law they were
deported."

"What has always intrigued us is that, if many of these
deportees are caught because of violations of the law, why
don't they establish a quarantine system, since the
deportation that is happening returns criminals to this
country, which adds to the unstoppable delinquency that
Honduras suffers? The expansion of gangs in Central America
is clearly linked to the number of deportees. This is made
worse still by the potential for these gangs to have links
to terrorist groups."

Ford