Each presidential administration holds its own views regarding how the U.S. should engage with the world, but nearly all have been united by a commitment to protect American interests abroad. Unfortunately, this changed during the Obama administration, and the results are coming to fruition — economic turmoil overseas with repercussions here in the United States.

One of the most serious examples of this is in Guatemala, where Obama-appointed foreign service officers encouraged successful opposition to the country’s largest silver mine, which is operated by Nevada-based Tahoe Resources. The resulting temporary closure of the mine has been dragging on for more than six months now, and is wreaking economic havoc.

This instability is bad for Guatemala and will complicate U.S. efforts to stem illegal immigration from the region. The Trump administration should reassert its support for reopening the mine and adjust its strategy in Central America, or the consequences could be devastating for both countries.

When operational, Tahoe Resources’ Escobal mine supports nearly 8,000 jobs in Guatemala and contributes $4 million per month to the country's coffers in taxes and royalties. The impact of this lost revenue has been so severe that Guatemala’s tax collector was fired recently for failing to collect enough taxes. As a result, the company also was forced to lay off 25 percent of its workforce, most of whom are Guatemalan.

The trouble for Escobal began several years ago, when the Obama-appointed American ambassador to Guatemala, Todd Robinson, backed a radical lawyer named Gloria Porras for a seat on the country’s highest court.

Robinson supported Porras, who is aligned with an anti-mining agenda, in spite of the fact that a key American company had a mining interest in the country and the mine was encouraging economic growth in Guatemala.

Not all the blame goes to Robinson, though. He was simply following orders from Obama to favor civil society over U.S. interests, according to a research paper by Dr. Michael Waller, who specializes in unconventional conflict.

Porras’ appointment has proven troublesome for both Guatemala and the United States, thanks to a lawsuit brought by a radical organization called CALAS, alleging that a local indigenous community was not properly consulted prior to the mine’s opening.

The suit ignores the fact that indigenous peoples make up 1.4 percent of the population in the region and very few live close to the mine. The CALAS suit was supported with funding from international groups such as United for Mining Justice, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, the Center for International Environmental Law, and others.

In other words, this is a case study in the Obama directive: Non-governmental organizations have hijacked a court system and are holding a productive mine hostage for ideological reasons. And thanks to a delay in the ruling, Guatemala’s economy is now stumbling. For a country in desperate need of capital and citizens in need of steady jobs, this will increase the odds of illegal immigration to the United States, to say nothing of the much more significant local effects.

Obama's is the sort of meddling that has earned the U.S. 150 years or more of enmity from the countries of Latin America. It has created the very immigration mess that Trump must now fix. He has already appointed a new ambassador, but that is not enough.

It will be up to Trump and his new ambassador to urge Guatemala to reopen the mine and promote the interests of the country they represent.

Brian McNicoll is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va.

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