Central America’s antidemocratic slide accelerated under Mr. Trump, who maintained a transactional relationship with the region: As long as the region’s leaders stepped up efforts to intercept migrants, he would largely stay silent on their internal affairs, former officials said. Mr. Trump also made it clear that if they refused, he was willing to mete out punishment quickly — by cutting aid or imposing tariffs, as he did with Mexico. So Central American governments beefed up enforcement on their borders but also began dismantling key anticorruption units that were investigating the powerful. “It’s like when you tell your kid, ‘Don’t do something,’ but when they do it, there’s no consequences,” said Damian Merlo, a lobbyist representing El Salvador’s government. “With Trump,” he added, “there would be consequences.”

Source: International New York Times August 24, 2021 09:01 UTC