Intipucá is a city that symbolizes the strength of Salvadorans based in the United States, who have transformed the city into a modern and dynamic community with their remittances. Now its residents fear that President Donald Trump’s immigration policy will cut them off.
In Central America, especially in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), the weight of remittances in the economy is significant and a drop in foreign exchange earnings for this item would have a negative impact.
90% of remittances go to consumption and a decrease in consumption will impact fiscal revenues,
said Mauricio Díaz, coordinator of the Social Forum of External Debt and Development from Honduras.
These countries are some of the largest sources of migrants to the United States, who travel fleeing poverty and violence in their communities.
Family remittances in Honduras increased from 3,730 million dollars in 2015 to 3,949 million in 2016, while in El Salvador they went from 4,270 million dollars to 4,576 million in the same period, which represent about 16% of the Gross Domestic Product in these countries.
Guatemala is the country that receives the largest revenue from remittances: 6,284 million dollars in 2015 and 7,160 million in 2016, close to the country’s total annual exports of $10 billion.
Official figures indicate that in 2016 21,340 Salvadorans, 21,500 Hondurans and 35,465 Guatemalans were deported from the United States.