The delegation — including elected Massachusetts officials — met with community leaders, human rights and environmental justice advocates, academics, researchers, legal scholars, and journalists in Honduras and Guatemala.

The mission’s objective was to observe, document and analyze the country conditions that Hondurans and Guatemalans encounter, particularly the root causes of forced internal displacement and migration to the United States.

This report specifically examines the political, economic, and social conditions in Honduras and Guatemala through an intersectional lens to better understand the context and nuance of migration, sovereignty of land and natural resources, and the erosion of the rule of law and democracy across Central America.

The forced migration of large numbers of Central Americans, which originated in the 1980s, was largely the result of political conflicts in which the United States supported predatory oligarchies, military coups, and dictators obsessed with keeping in place feudal forms of economic and political oppression.

Corporate interests have also been inextricably linked to the long history of interventions in countries like Honduras and Guatemala.

This history has a direct connection to Massachusetts, where the global headquarters for the United Fruit Company, a key player in the extractive nature of corporate abuse, was located. Migration by Central American nationals to Massachusetts should not be surprising, considering the historical ties that have connected Honduras and Guatemala to New England.

Our findings indicate that migration from Central America is driven by a toxic and fatal combination of violence, political persecution, extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and most recently, the devastating effects of environmental degradation, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of which is compounded by the complicated history of the United States’ involvement in the region and its implications on current conditions. Hondurans and Guatemalans are forcibly displaced from their homes despite the imminent harm and danger inherent in migration. Given that Honduran and Guatemalan immigrants represent two of the largest Latinx populations in the United States.

This report is designed to inform policymakers, advocates, and attorneys about the current conditions in Guatemala, Honduras, and the region so that we can all better serve the immigrant community.