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U.S. Cutting Off Aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras

“We are carrying out the President’s direction,” the State Department said, a day after Trump said the countries had “set up” migrant caravans.

The United States is cutting off aid to the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the State Department said Saturday. “At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.” The move comes after Trump on Friday claimed the countries had “set up” migrant caravans for entry into the United States. “We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we're not paying them anymore. Because they haven't done a thing for us. They set up these caravans,” Trump said. Trump threatened to cut off the region before, saying in an October tweet that the countries “were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the US.” Experts have said cutting off aid is likely to increase the number of migrants.

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