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Policy Series 2021-48: Fences Make Bad Hombres: Trump in Latin America27 min read
July 27, 2021 by Christy Thornton·Comments Off on Policy Series 2021-48: Fences Make Bad Hombres: Trump in Latin America27 min read
It starts, of course, with the wall. From its earliest moments, the campaign of Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States was predicated on hardening the border between the United States and Mexico, and by extension, between the United States and Latin America—the border where, as Gloria Anzaldúa wrote more than three decades ago, "the Third World grates against the first and bleeds."[1] Rubbing salt in those borderland wounds, Trump began his campaign with a call to seal the United States off from supposed horrors emerging from the south, rendering 'drugs' and 'crime' as external threats carried across the border by people themselves deemed 'illegal.'
Fences Make Bad Hombres: Trump in Latin America
Essay by Christy Thornton, Johns Hopkins University
Published on 27 July 2021 | issforum.org
With increasingly explicit incantations of looming demographic change and social disorder pushed by advisors like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, the Republican Party under Trump proudly mainstreamed racist, xenophobic ideas that many thought had been relegated to the fringe. The consequences of such mainstreaming were devastating: the online manifesto of the man who opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in a Walmart parking lot in El Paso in 2019, killing 23 people and injuring dozens more, for example, made clear that he specifically targeted Mexicans, citing the "great replacement" conspiracy theory about a "Hispanic invasion."[2] It was a conspiracy theory that predated Trump, to be sure, but one that his administration amplified—the actual history of a place like Texas, of the border itself, be damned. Indeed, the call to 'Make America Great Again' entailed a mobilization of the history of relations between the United States and Latin America based on a pernicious mix of nostalgic return and selective forgetting.
Foregoing a claim to the future, Trump instead repeatedly drew from the past, seeking to recover lost glory by either glossing over or openly celebrating the mistakes, failures, and outrages of previous eras. Over the course of his presidency, Trump marshaled three broad themes in the history of U.S.–Latin American relations: mobilizing an imagined past in which U.S. dominance in the region was unquestioned; deploying an often anachronistic but nonetheless virulent anti-Communism that was focused on left-leaning leaders and movements; and stoking nativist anti-immigrant sentiment towards people coming from Mexico, Central America, and what he called "shithole" countries such as Haiti.[3] In the administration's early days, Trump's personalist deal-making did drive some policy in the region, as when he lifted a ban on the import of Argentine lemons shortly after receiving permits to build a new office complex in Buenos Aires, demonstrating what Tom Long astutely summarized as Trump's "short-term transactionalism."[4] But as it developed over his four years in office, Trump's rhetoric and resultant policy toward Latin America often took the tone of a paean to imperial power—power that had been lost, or ceded, by previous administrations.
Though President Barack Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry had won cautious plaudits in the region for asserting in 2013 that "the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over," Trump's team was keen to reverse course and reassert U.S. prerogative in the Western Hemisphere.[5] Trump's preference for exerting domination over building consensus could be seen when the president insisted on installing a right-wing Cuban-American member of his National Security Council, Mauricio-Claver Carone, as president of the Inter-American Development Bank—defying sixty years of tradition that held that a Latin American should head the multilateral institution.[6] Indeed, Trump made his desire to return to an era of untrammeled U.S. power in the region explicit, invoking the Monroe Doctrine by name in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2018.[7]
National Security Advisor John Bolton repeated Trump's reaffirmation shortly thereafter when questioned why the Trump administration tolerated authoritarians in other regions of the world but pushed for regime change in Venezuela. "In this administration," Bolton told a television reporter, "we're not afraid to use the phrase 'Monroe Doctrine.'"[8] If the doctrinal justification harkened to the nineteenth century, however, the historical lineage Bolton summoned was that of Cold War 'democracy promotion.' Venezuela was a country in this hemisphere, he argued, and "it had been the objective of presidents going back to Ronald Reagan to have a completely democratic hemisphere." Bolton then doubled down on this logic in a speech to Bay of Pigs veterans in Florida in which he proclaimed that "the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well."[9] In that speech, Bolton named Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua as the "troika of tyranny," a pale imitation of George W. Bush's "axis of evil." While the phrase failed to catch on, the fearmongering over the threat of socialist subversion endured and reverberated domestically, becoming a key theme for the Trump administration, especially as it approached the reelection campaign—not least in the key state of Florida.
Trump's electoral politics in Florida made clear the contours of a "foreign policy for domestic consumption," and encouraged the revivification of a number of Cold War specters.[10] Cuba was, unsurprisingly, central, as Bolton's 2019 celebration of Bay of Pigs veterans—literal Cold Warriors—made clear. Though Trump had been somewhat noncommittal on Cuba during his first campaign, once in office he quickly began to roll back the Obama administration's attempts to normalize relations with the island, imposing new sanctions and reinstating travel restrictions, seeking even to end long-standing educational exchanges.[11] Closely linked to Cuba was Venezuela, which supplied important aid and oil to the island in defiance of the decades-long U.S. blockade. During the Trump years, in fact, invocations of both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez—both already dead by the time Trump assumed office—became routine, as when Trump's lawyer argued in November 2020 that Chávez, who died in 2013, had somehow conspired with president-elect Joe Biden to rig that year's election.[12] As though haunted by ghosts, the Trump administration frequently tried to pull relations with Latin America back to an earlier era, one where Cold War anti-Communism provided an organizing principle for U.S. power in the region.
Stoking this anti-Communist sentiment was a surprising figure far from the center of U.S. electoral politics: former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. As the analyst Adam Isacson has written, Uribe's influence on those in the Trump circle became especially clear during the reelection campaign, when Trump ran a Spanish-language ad in Florida that linked Joe Biden to Castro, Chávez, current Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and Colombian senator and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro.[13] The mention of Petro—who was far from a household name in the United States—was a clear marker of the influence of Uribe, who had been leading a campaign against socialism in the region and had coined the epithet "Castro-Chavismo" to describe the influence of left movements and parties throughout the Americas.[14] Trump directly deployed Uribe's language repeatedly during the campaign, as when he tweeted on October 10, "Joe Biden is a PUPPET of CASTRO-CHAVISTAS," arguing that Biden, who had defeated the socialist Bernie Sanders, was himself "weak on socialism."[15]
Uribe's influence was also visible when, during the campaign, Trump brought up the historic peace plan negotiated by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos that would have ended the nearly six-decade armed conflict between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC; Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia)—against which Uribe successfully spearheaded an opposition campaign. At a September campaign rally in Jacksonville, Trump slammed what he called the "Obama-Biden-Santos deal with Colombian drug cartels," arguing that the previous administration had "surrendered to the narco terrorists."[16] Though few voters in the United States were likely motivated by concerns about the internal politics of Colombia, Uribe's frame of Castro-Chavismo served as a useful shorthand for Republican electioneering about the dangers of socialism.
If the specters of Castro and Chávez hung over Trump's campaigning, his policy summoned other Cold War ghosts, too. The political resurrection of Elliott Abrams, in particular, revealed how a history of hardline anti-Communism could overcome even Trump's personal antipathy. Abrams had overseen key aspects of the Reagan administration's brutal support for counterinsurgency in Central America in the 1980s, calling U.S. policy in El Salvador—where a UN Truth Commission found that the U.S.-backed military and paramilitary death squads killed more than 75,000 civilians—a "fabulous achievement."[17] He was also convicted for lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra affair, but was pardoned by the George H.W. Bush administration before serving again under the younger Bush. Abrams, however, had publicly criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign, and Trump had to be convinced by his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to appoint the Cold War hawk as special envoy to Venezuela. At Pompeo's insistence, Abrams was brought on to handle Venezuela policy in the same week that Trump, urged on by anti-Maduro lawmakers like senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), announced that the United States was withdrawing recognition from the Maduro government and instead officially recognizing opposition upstart Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela. Trump then signaled his intent to exert "maximum pressure" to force regime change in Venezuela, a task he assumed would be "low-hanging fruit" for the United States, expecting a "major foreign policy victory."[18]
Despite dragging Abrams's legacy in the 1981 El Mozote massacre and Iran-Contra into its Venezuela policy, however, the Trump administration had none of the major victories it anticipated. Though the United States did convince a host of other countries to recognize Guaidó—whose ability to bring together the notoriously fractious Venezuelan opposition remained limited, to say the least—Abrams and the Trump administration ultimately had little to show for their sanctions and saber rattling. Maduro remains in office, and Venezuela's humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by COVID-19, only worsened with Trump's escalating sanctions.[19] Perhaps the most important accomplishment of the Trump Venezuela strategy was ensuring a surprising continuity into the next administration, as Biden has thus far largely continued Trump's "maximum pressure" approach, with the added step of converting the Trump administration's last-minute granting of Deferred Enforced Departure for Venezuelans in the United States into Temporary Protected Status (TPS) —a move that anti-immigrant hardliners in the Trump administration had been unwilling to make.[20]
Venezuela wasn't the only country in the region to experience an upheaval of leadership during the Trump years. In another echo of the Cold War, the Trump administration's supposed reverence for 'democracy promotion'—invoked by Bolton with regard to Venezuela—foundered elsewhere on its commitment to supporting right-wing regimes with anti-socialist agendas. The cases of Brazil, Bolivia, and Honduras make this tendency clear.
Trump was a close ally of Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected after a series of dubious legal maneuvers ousted former president Dilma Rousseff and prevented her predecessor, Ignacio 'Lula' da Silva, from running for president again.[21] Bolsonaro modeled his presidency on Trump's in many ways, constantly denouncing "fake news" and downplaying the emergence of COVID-19 as a "little flu," thereby creating the conditions for one of the most devastating outbreaks in the entire world, with an official death toll that now stands below that of only the United States.[22] Even as Bolsonaro stoked talk of the return of the country's Cold War military dictatorship, explicitly casting doubt on the democratic process in Brazil, close ties between the Bolsonaro family and Trump advisors like Jared Kushner continued.[23] The insistence on democracy, as was the case during the long Cold War, was for enemies, not allies.
Similarly, in Bolivia, the Trump administration was quick to throw its weight behind an insurgent right. After a flawed statistical analysis led the Organization of American States (OAS) to argue that then-president Evo Morales had rigged his already controversial 2019 re-election, Morales fled the country under military pressure and the little-known senator Jeanine Áñez used a series of parliamentary procedures to declare herself the interim president.[24] Trump quickly recognized the new leader, and subsequently turned a blind eye when the Áñez government unleashed a wave of violent repression against supporters of former president Morales.[25] Trump even sent National Security Council official Mauricio Claver-Carone to Bolivia to meet with Áñez and offer his support for her leadership. There, Claver-Carone argued that the socialist government of Evo Morales had caused a rift in U.S.-Bolivian relations in an "unnatural way."[26] A return to the state of nature in which Latin American governments could be counted on to be trusted U.S. allies was, therefore, in order.
In Honduras, in contrast, where the OAS also argued that there was rampant electoral fraud during the 2017 reelection of the right-wing president Juan Orlando Hernández—and where there was election-related protest and upheaval similar to that in Bolivia—the Trump administration quickly recognized Hernández as the winner, ignoring the calls of the OAS and members of U.S. Congress for a new election.[27] An admirer of the U.S. president, Hernández supported Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and Honduras was one of just nine countries (together with Guatemala, led by evangelical Christian Jimmy Morales) that voted with the United States against a UN resolution condemning the move.[28] The suggestion of quid pro quo was unavoidable: just one day after voting with Trump at the UN, the administration officially congratulated Hernández on his election win, recognizing him as Honduras's legitimate leader.[29]
Later, Hernández signed an agreement that was intended to stem the flow of migrants through and from his country, allowing the United States to deport even non-Honduran arrivals to Honduras and requiring those seeking asylum to do so from Honduras, rather than at the U.S. border. (Similar agreements were negotiated with right-wing president Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Morales in Guatemala).[30] Though Hernández had already been identified as the unindicted co-conspirator in the U.S. federal trial of his brother, Tony, on drug trafficking charges, Trump administration support never wavered—even after court documents alleged that Hernández said he would make U.S. officials think he was cooperating in the drug war but actually "shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos."[31] Trump's friendly relations with Honduras therefore followed a long U.S. government tradition in Central America and elsewhere of subordinating concerns about democracy or drugs to concerns about immigration and socialism.[32]
The Honduras case makes clear that while restoring U.S. supremacy and backing right-wing forces in the region were key themes, the most consistent through line of Trump policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean was its stance on immigration. Trump's fear that residents of so-called "shithole" countries were immigrating in large numbers to the United States put the spotlight on Haiti in particular. Some Haitian-Americans who harbored antipathy toward the Clintons for their bungled aid programs in post-earthquake Haiti had initially supported Trump against Hillary Clinton, a fact that he played up in his first campaign, promising to be a "champion" for Haitians.[33] But when Trump moved to end TPS for Haitians in his first year in office, hundreds of Haitian and Haitian-American protestors descended on Mar-a-Lago to denounce the president, and they returned after his "shithole" remarks became public.[34] Trump clearly knew little about Haiti, and cared even less; as his comments desirous of immigrants from "Norway" made clear, he approached the country only through a lens of racist xenophobia. Trump therefore not only demonstrated the selective forgetting of the long history of U.S. military and electoral interventions in Haiti, he also signaled to his followers a return to a revanchist U.S. tradition of xenophobia, a tradition at least as old as Chinese exclusion and debates around the imperial subsumption of non-white Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Filipinos in the late nineteenth century.
Forgetting also defined Trump's racialized antipathy toward the tens of thousands of Central Americans, many of them children, who arrived seeking asylum at the U.S.–Mexico border during his term. As the Trump administration developed increasingly elaborate justifications for defying international asylum law—eventually using the emergency of COVID-19 to effectively close the border to asylees altogether through the newly enacted Title 42, even when the virus was more rampant north of the Rio Grande than south—the long history of U.S. destabilization in the region remained unacknowledged. U.S. support for right-wing dictatorial regimes in the region during the 1950s and 1960s; the U.S. backed-overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954; support for counterinsurgency and paramilitary forces during the 1980s; the fostering of drug-trafficking by U.S. allies in the same period; the deportation of youth involved in gangs like the MS-13 from U.S. prisons during the 1990s; the massive illegal traffic in U.S. guns to Mexico and Central America; the U.S. failure to address the uneven ravages of climate change; and U.S. intervention in political processes as recent as the 2009 ouster of Honduras' left-leaning president Manuel Zelaya—these were histories that directly created the conditions from which hundreds of thousands of Central Americans were forced to flee. But they were histories overlooked and erased as Trump rallied his base to build the "big beautiful wall." If this was perhaps the most egregious example of Trump's selective forgetting, however, the question of what might change under Biden administration, with its "do not come" message, remains an open one.[35]
While the wall was itself a kind of fetish of the Trump presidency—a physical object imbued with fantastical powers—border enforcement in fact went well beyond the barrier. In this, Trump was only continuing the policies of his predecessor, Obama, who worked with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto to fortify Mexico's southern border with Guatemala in an attempt to stop Central Americans from transiting Mexico in the first place. An Obama immigration official had declared in 2012 that "the Guatemalan border with Chiapas is now our southern border," and Trump continued this policy, putting pressure first on Peña Nieto and then on his successor Andres Manuel López Obrador to further harden the crossing.[36] In fact, during this period, Mexico deported far more Central American migrants than the United States did, putting the Mexican state in the service of U.S. immigration goals.[37] Though López Obrador, known widely as AMLO, promised during his campaign he would promote dignity for migrants and seek an end to this policy, he has not only overseen the continued militarization the southern border with his newly formed National Guard, but he also agreed to the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) known popularly as the Remain-in-Mexico program, which kept asylum seekers from crossing into the United States (a program that was formally ended by the Biden administration in June). While many anti-populist opponents of both Trump and AMLO chalked up Mexican acquiescence to the program to personal affinities between the two leaders, calmer analysts have recognized both the pragmatic tradition in Mexican foreign policy, and, perhaps more importantly, the structural constraints under which Mexican leaders operate, particularly when it comes to the economy.[38]
The negotiations over MPP underscore the emphasis on trade and economic integration in Trump's policy toward Mexico, and their links to the immigration question. Given his penchant for personalist deal-making, Trump often used the presidential authority over tariffs as a cudgel in his foreign policy. To bolster his own negotiating image, Trump made loud threats to institute escalating tariffs on Mexico if migrant numbers weren't contained—though the deal had already largely been concluded months before Trump's announcement and then his retraction of the tariff threat.[39] Nevertheless, such a threat was in keeping with his repeated assertions that trade with Mexico under NAFTA been a boon for Mexico and a curse for the United States, a claim that wholly ignored the distributional consequences in both countries in order to stoke a nationalist furor.[40] Mexico was "killing us on jobs and trade," Trump argued, and therefore NAFTA had to be scrapped.[41] His negotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a 'new NAFTA' therefore fulfilled a key campaign promise, particularly with provisions to raise wages and labor standards in Mexico, theoretically making outsourcing less attractive. It remains to be seen, however, what effects the USMCA might have on U.S. manufacturing and agricultural employment; even companies with which Trump personally intervened continued to automate and offshore manufacturing jobs.[42]
If little actually changed with regard to licit trade between the United States and Mexico in the Trump era, however, the question of illicit trade, particularly in narcotic drugs, saw a somewhat surprising shift under López Obrador—though largely in reaction to bungled U.S. actions. While Trump initially insisted that his administration would embark on a new strategy with regard to drugs, particularly in the context of the overdose crisis in the United States, the administration largely continued the failed punitive drug-war policies of his predecessors over the previous five decades.[43] But in his insistence on the unquestioned U.S. prerogative to fight drug trafficking, Trump overplayed his hand with regard to longstanding security cooperation agreements with Mexico. After a brutal attack on a family of dual-citizens in northern Mexico in 2019, Trump tweeted that he would send U.S. forces to "wage WAR," on drug-trafficking organizations; AMLO politely but firmly rejected the suggestion as an affront to Mexican sovereignty.[44]
Later, however, when the United States arrested a high-ranking Mexican military official, General Salvador Cienfuegos, on drug-trafficking charges without the knowledge of the Mexican state—revealing U.S. investigations to which the notoriously corrupt and compromised Mexican security forces weren't privy—AMLO responded by scaling back security cooperation with the United States for the first time in decades. Mexico insisted, under threat of kicking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) out of the country, that the United States return Cienfuegos to Mexico. Once the general was transferred from U.S. custody, AMLO immediately oversaw the passage of a new bill to limit cooperation and curtail the privileges of U.S. security forces.[45] Mexico subsequently declined to prosecute the general, much to the dismay of U.S. prosecutors. By insisting on a return to an imagined past where U.S. drug war dictates were unquestioned, the Trump administration may have actually constrained the U.S. prerogative in Mexico on the question of drugs. If the result is a rethinking of the longstanding militarized kingpin strategy in Mexico—a failure in every regard—perhaps some good will come from Trump's blunders, but this remains to be seen.
A more enduring legacy of Trump's approach to Mexico, however, is likely to come from his constant invocations of Mexicans as "bad hombres."[46] Repeating a trope that has reared its head repeatedly over the decades, Trump continuously insisted that Mexicans brought drugs and crime across the border, thereby corrupting a once great United States—and insisted on a return to an imagined period before a white body politic was tainted with racialized others. The seething xenophobia that this formulation fostered among Trump supporters mobilized an imagined history through a kind of fun-house mirror: an entirely distorted past which Mexico was the aggressor, and the United States, the victim. The grievance politics that emerged from this combination of nostalgic return and selective forgetting underlines the incoherence of the Make America Great Again project, in which the United States was simultaneously the most powerful and important country in the world and yet also the victim of the predations of those who were presumed to be inferior and external. As was revealed in that Walmart parking lot in El Paso in 2019, such a worldview is deeply dangerous, and the destabilization it fostered under Trump will be with us for some time to come.
Christy Thornton is an assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy (Oakland: University of California Press, 2021).
© Copyright 2021 The Authors
[1] Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987): 3.
[2] Philip Rucker, "'How Do you Stop these People?': Trump's Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Looms over El Paso Massacre," Washington Post, August 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-do-you-stop-these-people-trumps-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-looms-over-el-paso-massacre/2019/08/04/62d0435a-b6ce-11e9-a091-6a96e67d9cce_story.html.
[3] Ali Vitali, Kasie Hunt and Frank Thorp V, "Trump Referred to Haiti and African Nations as 'Shithole' Countries," NBC News, January 11, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-referred-haiti-african-countries-shithole-nations-n836946.
[4] Tom Long, "From Trump to Biden in Latin America," NACLA Report on the Americas 53:2 (2021): 121-126. On Argentine lemons, see Christy Thornton, "An Empire Upside Down," Dollars & Sense, July/August 2017, http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2017/0717thornton.html.
[5] John Kerry, Remarks on U.S. Policy in the Western Hemisphere, November 18, 2013, https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/11/217680.htm.
[6] Christy Thornton, "U.S.-IADB: A Last-Ditch Effort at Securing U.S. Hegemony?," AULABlog, September 30, 2020, https://aulablog.net/2020/09/30/u-s-iadb-a-last-ditch-effort-at-securing-u-s-hegemony/comment-page-1.
[7] Address by the President of the United States of America H. E. Mr. Donald Trump, New York, September 25, 2018, https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/73/us_en.pdf.
[8] "What is the Monroe Doctrine? John Bolton's Justification for Trump's Push against Maduro," Washington Post, March 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/04/what-is-monroe-doctrine-john-boltons-justification-trumps-push-against-maduro.
[9] Ambassador Bolton remarks to the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association – Brigade 2506, April 17, 2019, https://cu.usembassy.gov/ambassador-bolton-bay-of-pigs-veterans-association-brigade-2506.
[10] Renata Keller, "A Foreign Policy for Domestic Consumption: Mexico's Lukewarm Defense of Castro, 1959–1969," Latin American Research Review 47:2 (September 7, 2012): 100–119.
[11] Council on Foreign Relations Backgrounder, U.S.-Cuba Relations, May 12, 2021, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-cuba-relations.
[12] Fox News alert, November 19, 2020, https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1329494629138444288.
[13] Adam Isacson, "Trump, 'Castro-Chavismo,' and the Centro Democrático," WOLA, October 19, 2020, https://colombiapeace.org/trump-castro-chavismo-and-the-centro-democratico; Rafael Bernal, "Trump Spanish-Language Ad Equates Progressives, Socialists," The Hill, August 3, 2020, https://thehill.com/latino/510268-trump-spanish-language-ad-equates-progressives-socialists.
[14] Tim Padget, "Is Colombia Interfering In The U.S. Election In Florida – With Tactics It Exported To Florida?" WLRN, September 22, 2020, https://www.wlrn.org/2020-09-22/is-colombia-interfering-in-the-u-s-election-in-florida-with-tactics-it-exported-to-florida.
[15] Adam Isacson, "Trump, 'Castro-Chavismo,' and the Centro Democrático," WOLA, October 19, 2020, https://colombiapeace.org/trump-castro-chavismo-and-the-centro-democratico.
[16] Donald Trump Campaign Rally Transcript, Jacksonville, FL, September 24, 2020, https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-jacksonville-fl-campaign-rally-transcript-september-24
[17] David Corn, "Elliott Abrams: It's Back!" The Nation, June 14, 2001, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/elliott-abrams-its-back; Raymond Bonner, "What Did Elliott Abrams Have to Do With the El Mozote Massacre?," The Atlantic, February 15, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/ilhan-omar-elliott-abrams-and-el-mozote-massacre/582889.
[18] Ishaan Tharoor, "Trump's Maximum Pressure Tactics are Incoherent," Washington Post, June 21, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/21/trumps-maximum-pressure-tactics-are-incoherent.
[19] Alexander Main, "Out of the Ashes of Economic War," NACLA, April 2, 2020, https://nacla.org/news/2020/07/16/out-ashes-economic-war.
[20] Sabrina Rodriguez, "Trump Grants Venezuelans Temporary Legal Status on His Way Out," Politico, January 19, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/19/trump-venezuela-temporary-legal-status-460524; "US Citizenship and Immigration Service, Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status and Implementation of Employment Authorization for Venezuelans Covered by Deferred Enforced Departure," https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/03/09/2021-04951/designation-of-venezuela-for-temporary-protected-status-and-implementation-of-employment; "Rubio Welcomes Designation of Temporary Protected Status for Eligible Venezuelan Nationals in the U.S.," March 8, 2021, https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/3/rubio-welcomes-designation-of-temporary-protected-status-for-eligible-venezuelan-nationals-in-the-u-s.
[21] Alexandre de Santi and Rafael Moro Martins, "In Sharp Rebuke, Brazil Supreme Court Rules Judge Who Locked Up Lula Was Biased," The Intercept, March 15, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/03/15/brazil-lula-sergio-moro-supreme-court/.
[22] Nick Paton Walsh, Jo Shelley, Eduardo Duwe and William Bonnett, "Bolsonaro Calls Coronavirus a 'Little Flu.' Inside Brazil's Hospitals, Doctors Know the Horrifying Reality," CNN, May 25, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/23/americas/brazil-coronavirus-hospitals-intl/index.html.
[23] Robert Muggah, "Bolsonaro Is Following Trump's Anti-Democracy Playbook," Foreign Policy, January 14, 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/14/bolsonaro-brazil-trump-anti-democracy-elections/.
[24] Julie Turkewitz, "M.I.T. Researchers Cast Doubt on Bolivian Election Fraud," New York Times, February 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/world/americas/bolivia-election-fraud.html.
[25] Lucien Chauvin and Anthony Faiola, "As the U.S.-backed Government in Bolivia Unleashes a Wave of Political Persecution, the Trump Administration Remains Silent," Washington Post, March 6, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/as-the-us-backed-government-in-bolivia-unleashes-what-many-see-as-political-persecutions-the-trump-administration-remains-silent/2020/03/06/542b828c-5751-11ea-8efd-0f904bdd8057_story.html.
[26] "Bolivia Pressures Argentina over Morales Call for 'Armed Militias,'" Reuters, January 15, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-politics/bolivia-pressures-argentina-over-morales-call-for-armed-militias-idUSKBN1ZE2FA.
[27] Sarah Kinosian, "US Recognizes Re-election of Honduras President Despite Fraud Allegations," The Guardian, December 22, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote.
[28] Joshua Partlow, "Guatemala and Honduras sided with Trump on Jerusalem. Here's Why," Washington Post, December 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/guatemala-and-honduras-sided-with-trump-on-jerusalem-heres-why/2017/12/28/7c4dfeee-eb1e-11e7-956e-baea358f9725_story.html;
[29] Statement by Heather Nauert, Spokesperson, on the Presidential Elections in Honduras, December 22, 2017, https://hn.usembassy.gov/statement-heather-nauert-spokesperson-presidential-elections-honduras.
[30] Nicole Naurea, "Trump's Agreements in Central America are Dismantling the Asylum System as We Know It," Vox, November 19, 2019, https://www.vox.com/2019/9/26/20870768/trump-agreement-honduras-guatemala-el-salvador-explained.
[31] Emily Palmer and Kirk Semple, "A Damning Portrait of Presidential Corruption, but Hondurans Sound Resigned," New York Times, March 23, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/world/americas/honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-drug-trial.html; "US Prosecutors Accuse Honduran President of Drug Conspiracy," Associated Press, August 3, 2019, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/florida/articles/2019-08-03/honduran-president-accused-in-ny-of-drug-conspiracy; Kate Linthicum, "The President of Honduras was Supposed to be a Drug War Ally. U.S. Prosecutors Say He Helped Move Cocaine," Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-09/us-legal-move-expands-drug-claims-against-honduras-president.
[32] Alexander Aviña, "A History of Inconvenient Allies and Convenient Enemies," NACLA, April 30, 2020, https://nacla.org/news/2020/04/30/narco-state-allies.
[33] Jude Sheerin, "US election 2016: What Really Happened with the Clintons in Haiti?," BBC News, November 2, 2016, https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37826098; Jonathan Katz, "The Clintons' Haiti Screw-Up, As Told By Hillary's Emails," Politico, September 2, 2015.
[34] "TPS Protesters March On Mar-a-Lago," WLRN, November 21, 2017, https://www.wlrn.org/news/2017-11-21/tps-protesters-march-on-mar-a-lago.
[35] Pedro Gerson, "Kamala Harris' 'Do Not Come' Message Was a Political Failure," Slate, June 10, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/kamala-harris-immigration-guatemala.html
[36] Jeff Abbot, "Keep Out! How the U.S. Is Militarizing Mexico's Southern Border," The Progressive, October 2, 2017, https://progressive.org/magazine/keep-out-how-the-us-militarizes-mexico-southern-border.
[37] David Bier, "Mexico Deported More Central Americans Than the U.S. in 2018," Cato Institute, June 12, 2019, https://www.cato.org/blog/mexico-deported-more-central-americans-us-did-2018.
[38] Pamela Starr, "What AMLO Really Thinks About Biden," Foreign Policy, February 2, 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/02/what-amlo-really-thinks-about-biden.
[39] Michael Shear and Maggie Haberman, "Mexico Agreed to Take Border Actions Months Before Trump Announced Tariff Deal," New York Times, June 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/us/politics/trump-mexico-deal-tariffs.html.
[40] Council on Foreign Relations, "Backgrounder: NAFTA and the USMCA: Weighing the Impact of North American Trade," July 1, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/naftas-economic-impact.
[41] Robert Valencia, "Trump Should Worry About U.S. Unskilled Labor And Stop Blaming Mexico for Job Losses, Official Says," Newsweek, December 10, 2017, https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-economic-policies-hurt-us-more-mexican-labor-official-says-741868.
[42] David Lynch, "Trump's Carrier Deal Fades as Economic Reality Intervenes," Washington Post, October 26, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/26/trump-carrier-manufacturing-jobs/.
[43] Dina Fine Maron, "Is Trump's Opioid Strategy a 'War on Drugs' Relapse?," Scientific American, March 20, 2018, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-trumps-opioid-strategy-a-war-on-drugs-relapse.
[44] Mary Beth Sheridan and Brittany Shammas, "Nine Members of Mormon Family, Dual U.S.-Mexican Citizens, Killed in Attack in Northern Mexico; Trump Offers Support," Washington Post, November 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/at-least-seven-members-of-mormon-family-brutally-killed-in-northern-mexico/2019/11/05/d303e448-ffbb-11e9-9518-1e76abc088b6_story.html.
[45] Mary Beth Sheridan, "Mexico Fast-Tracks Law that Could Limit Anti-Drug Cooperation with U.S.," Washington Post, December 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexico-fast-tracks-law-that-could-limit-antidrug-cooperation-with-us/2020/12/11/aa2f90d4-3b43-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html.
[46] Ben Zimmer, "Why Trump Uses Mock Spanish," The Atlantic, June 14, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/06/loco-hombres-why-trump-uses-mock-spanish/591733.
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Western Australia's 12,000 km (7,450 mi) of coastline is broken up only by oasis-like towns and cities. Most of the state, however, is an arid region of mostly uninhabited, infertile land with an untamed physical aesthetic. The harsh climate cultivates a laid-back lifestyle centered on the coast's shaded enclaves and picturesque beaches. Australia's largest state, with an area of 2.65 million sq km (1 million sq mi), Western Australia contains over a third of the country's landmass but just 11 percent of its population.
Perth: One of the most geographically isolated cities in the world, Perth nevertheless offers a relaxed metropolitan vibe and pleasant natural scenery, and serves as a hub for most trips to Western Australia.
Broome: Known for its pristine beaches, warm weather, and camel rides, the northwestern coastal town of Broome has evolved from a pearl-fishing hub to one of the most visited destinations in Western Australia.
Margaret River: Quality wines flow from Margaret River, a laidback town on the southwestern tip of the continent that, thanks to its beautiful scenery, is one of the undisputed highlights of Western Australia tourism.
Fremantle: Formerly a colonial settlement for British convicts, Perth's southern port district of Fremantle has turned its image around completely and is now known as the city's trendiest suburb.
Kings Park & Botanic Garden: No other space sums up the laidback, nature-infused vibe of Perth better than these gardens, which offer views over the city center and the river that nourishes it.
Fremantle Prison: Add this World Heritage Site to your Western Australia itinerary to get a taste of what life was like during the colonial days, when British convicts arrived and established their settlements in this remote part of the world.
Swan River: Winding its way through the heart of the city to meet the Indian Ocean, this picturesque river serves as the lifeblood of Perth and offers great spots to stroll, sail, or swim on hot days.
Busselton Jetty: Walk over water as you head out on this old-fashioned wooden pier, which extends more than 2 km (1.2 mi) out into the deep blue.
The Perth Mint: It's all about gold at this historic Western Australia attraction, which provides fascinating insight into the mining rush of the 19th century, and even offers you the chance to see molten gold molded into an ingot.
Perth Zoo: You can see all the famous local animals--kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, and even quokkas--at this expansive zoo, known for its open, scenic "bushwalk" tour.
Cottesloe Beach: The laidback Perth lifestyle shines through at this wide beach, where locals gather to play cricket on the foreshore and star-crossed lovers settle in to watch the romantic sunset.
Cable Beach: Take a camel ride along this popular expanse of coastline during your Western Australia holiday and you'll be rewarded with a memorable sunset looking out over the seemingly endless horizon.
Kings Park War Memorial: Pay your respects to those who lost their lives in the World Wars at this somber but striking memorial, which represents the tomb of an unknown soldier and offers views over the Swan River.
The Pinnacles: Thousands of cone-shaped rocks protrude from the desert in this bizarre landscape, which has developed into one of the most iconic attractions in Western Australia.
A strong emphasis on nature and outdoor pursuits mean that most destinations in Western Australia offer a plethora of family-friendly options.
Start in Perth, where you can take the kids to a range of parks, beaches, and wildlife centers to keep them entertained and educated.
While in the big city, make sure you pop down to Fremantle, where you can visit the docks and admire boats and ships about to embark on journeys to exotic corners of the globe.
Next on your Western Australia itinerary, head north to Broome, where the kids will have a blast with a camel ride along Cable Beach.
Your family vacation in Western Australia will get off to a great start in Perth, a city of nearly two million people that caters to visitors of all ages.
Beat the heat at Adventure World, an adrenaline-pumping water park where the little ones can run amok, or head to Perth Zoo to introduce the kids to some of Australia's most famous animal species.
The opportunity to embark on a bumpy camel ride at Cable Beach will complete your memorable Western Australia vacation.
Always check with locals before swimming at any beach--while shark attacks remain very rare and usually only occur in deeper water, they can still be a risk if you swim at an unpatrolled spot.
Cable Beach is notorious for jellyfish during certain times of year, so make sure you check before letting the little ones swim.
Remember to bring plenty of insect repellent and cover the kids in sunscreen and sun-smart clothing during your trip to Western Australia, as the already-fierce Australian sun can be particularly potent in the west.
The region's strong agricultural traditions and expanses of farmland mean you can enjoy plenty of excellent, locally grown food during your vacation in Western Australia.
When you visit cities and towns along the region's 12,000 km (7,450 mi) of coastline, you can sample some of the world's freshest seafood, including salmon, trout, lobster, and prawns.
Add some inland destinations to your Western Australia itinerary and you'll find a multitude of farms selling all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The multicultural atmosphere of Perth means you can find all kinds of international cuisine, with particularly strong influences from nearby Asia.
Complete your Western Australia holiday by journeying south to Margaret River, where you can sample some of Australia's finest wines.
As the only real city in this part of the country, Perth, not surprisingly, offers the best range of shopping options in the region.
You'll find all manner of international brands at large shopping zones, such as London Court and Sportscraft Watertown Brand Outlet Centre.
Alternatively, you can add Fremantle to your Western Australia itinerary to browse through some of the city's trendiest shops and boutiques.
If heading on a road trip during your Western Australia vacation, remember to stock up on supplies in cities or regional centers. In the more remote parts of the region you might have to drive for hours to the nearest shop, where prices can be extremely high.
As well as marking other nationally recognized public holidays, Western Australia celebrates its own day on the first Monday in June, aptly named Western Australia Day.
If you take a trip to Western Australia on that day, you'll see festivities, live music, and other artistic performances in the streets of Perth.
Plan your Western Australia holiday for the warmer months--between November and March--and you can catch some popular music festivals featuring well-known local and international artists.
The most visited festivals include Southbound in January, Laneway Festival in February, and Stereosonic in November.
The region's massive size, and variation from tropical north to temperate south, means you can experience quite different climates depending on where your Western Australia itinerary takes you.
Southern coastal areas enjoy a mild Mediterranean climate, with warm summers, cool winters, and plenty of sunshine.
A few hours farther north, you'll find slightly hotter weather with plenty of sunshine. In Broome, the most popular tropical Western Australia destination, you'll encounter a mix of hot weather and thunderstorms between October and March, with a pleasant dry season between April and September.
Tourism in Western Australia tends to focus on the coast, with much of the inland expanses covered in harsh desert landscape.
Harsh conditions, long distances between settlements, and a staggering amount of "empty" space can present problems when getting from place to place on a Western Australia holiday.
Within Perth, you can make use of a well-connected public transport network consisting of buses, ferries, and a metro system.
If your Western Australia itinerary takes you north of or farther inland from the big city, you're probably best off looking for a flight instead of taking a very long bus or train journey.
Intrepid travelers often choose to rent or even buy a car and camp along the way on an adventurous Western Australia vacation, although it's worth getting an off-road vehicle and stocking up with plenty of supplies before doing this.


Yes you can both Creatine and Caffine.
Follow as dosage- Loading Phase 20gm for 5 days in divided dosage then 5gm for 40 days then stop for 20-30 days then again start as started. Caffine basiclly black coffee half an hour before workout.Along with these add Whey protein Isolate, BCAA, Multivitamin.


text:
HI Mailbag: North Meridian Street and Meridian Hills Boulevard
Posted by Sharon Butsch Freeland | Apr 16, 2013 | Mailbag | 27 |
Reader's Question:
On the northwest corner of North Meridian Street and Meridian Hills Boulevard, there is a wooded lot surrounded by a fence. There were maybe two buildings on an aerial photo from 1962, but a 1971 aerial photo showed the land to be vacant. I'd love to know who lived there and why the property remains vacant and fenced in to this day. ~ Becki H., Indianapolis
HI's Answer:
Every day, thousands of cars pass through the intersection where Meridian Street, Meridian Hills Boulevard, and 71st Street come together. The wooded property in the northwest quadrant of that corner has been an enigma to passersby for decades.
Heavily wooded property on the northwest corner of North Meridian Street, Meridian Hills Boulevard, and E. 71st Street (2013 photo by Sharon Butsch Freeland)
The land that's bounded by Meridian Street, Meridian Hills Boulevard, and West 72nd Street consists of about 3.6 acres. From an aerial view, the plot resembles a piece of pie. The property is just north of the golf course at the Meridian Hills Country Club. At some point, the acreage was divided into nine separate parcels of approximately one-third of an acre each, suggesting that at one time someone had intended to develop this site into residential building lots.
From an aerial view, the acreage bounded by Meridian Hills Boulevard, Meridian St., and 72nd St. resembles a piece of pie (map courtesy of bing)
My repeated attempts to contact the owner of the property over the past several weeks have not been successful. I had hoped to confirm the information I'd found on my own, as well as obtain additional details on the history of the site and any plans being contemplated for its future. Failing any first-hand accounts, I will tell you what I know.
The property was purchased from the federal government in 1834 by Thomas Jackson. By the time of the 1855 Marion County Atlas, the owner was listed as J. C. Mahan. On the 1889 Atlas of Indianapolis and Marion County, the owner was listed as John H. Ditman.
1834 Land Patent shows the purchase by Thomas Jackson from the U.S. of A. (Ancestry.com)
Because there are few records available for the areas of Marion County that were outside the city limits of Indianapolis until more recent times, I am not able to report who owned the property between 1889 and the 1930s. I can, however, provide information on the owners for the last three-quarters of a century, as members of the same family have continuously owned the property since then.
Fieldstone pillars are spaced at regular intervals around the perimeter of the property at Meridian and Meridian Hills Blvd. (2013 photo by Sharon Butsch Freeland)
By the time of the 1940 Census, a residence on the property was the home of three of the four adult children of Lafayette Andrew Jackson (1863-1931), the founder of the Standard Grocery Store chain. The residents included Jackson's daughter Charlotte and her husband, Carl Baldwin, and Jackson's sons, Chester and Howard. I feel certain the home was already built, when the Jackson family moved there in the 1930s, but at this time I do not know who built it.
On the 1940 Census, three of Lafayette Jackson's children lived on the property at Meridian Street and Meridian Hills Boulevard (image courtesy of Ancestry.com)
L. A. Jackson owned 226 grocery stores at the time he was killed by gunfire in a robbery attempt at the main Standard Grocery Store office at 419 E. Washington Street. Lafayette's children carried on the operation of the chain after his untimely demise at the age of 68. Older son Chester became president of Standard Grocery in 1931. He married Marguerite "Marjorie" O'Connell in 1952. The couple built their own home a few blocks away, on a large corner lot at 6490 Spring Mill Road. In 1977, Chester Jackson's eccentric widow, Marjorie Jackson, also lost her life in a highly publicized robbery, murder, and house fire.
Carl and Charlotte (Jackson) Baldwin continued to live in the property until their deaths in 1951 and 1959, respectively. Indianapolis city directories in the early 1960s listed "No Return" for 7102 N. Meridian Street, so the home may have been vacant or tenant-occupied for a time. Around 1962 or 1963, there was a fire on the property, presumably at the house in which the Jackson siblings had all formerly resided together. I searched newspapers of the period, but I was not able to find any information about the fire.
A fieldstone bridge over a gully on the property led to a single-family residence that once stood on this prominent corner (2013 photo by Sharon Butsch Freeland)
The property was then deeded to Charlotte Baldwin's nephew (and Lafayette A. Jackson's grandson), Edward J. Wiest. Edward's father, Edward H. Wiest, was the husband of Lafayette Jackson's fourth child, daughter Marguerite. Upon the death of the younger Edward Wiest, the property was then deeded to his sister, Elizabeth (Wiest) Johnson (Mrs. Sylvester Johnson III). She is the chairperson of the annual Traders Point Hunt Charity Horse Show. In recent years, Mrs. Johnson has turned the property over to her son, John Johnson, who owns the Meridian Hills properties under the name Eagle Standard LLC.
As I could not reach the Johnsons, I do not know what their future plans for the property might be, if any. My sense is that they merely wish to keep the property in the family and maintain the land in as natural a state as possible for such a prominent corner. I'm sure the wildlife in the area enjoy having a haven on one of the main streets of the city.
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Sharon Butsch Freeland
Sharon Butsch Freeland is a freelance researcher, writer, proofreader, and editor. She's a proud alumna of Shortridge High School and MacMurray College and over the years has also taken courses at Herron School of Art and Design, Indiana University, University of Colorado, Colorado Academy of Art, and the Indianapolis Art Center. She's been the executive director of a nonprofit association, a newspaper columnist, a residential real estate broker, and a political campaign staff member. Fascinated by Indianapolis history from an early age, Sharon's passion for bygone eras became even more compelling when she discovered that her ancestors had settled in Indiana in 1828. Since learning that she's a seventh generation Hoosier, many details about both the State of Indiana and the City of Indianapolis have taken on new meaning for her. Sharon enjoys helping others get excited about the history of Indianapolis, as well as the histories of their own families.
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basil berchekas jr	on April 16, 2013 at 9:13 am
Must stay with this article…always wondered myself about that lot; friends of the family who lived near 85th and Illinois tried to find out, as well as friends at 77th and Spring Mill Road (whose parents used to farm that area west of Spring Mill Road) also tried to find out, but to no avail.
Sharon Butsch Freeland	on April 17, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Thanks, Basil. I hope to piece together more information on this property, as time goes by. However, the question from Becki Heusel had been languishing "in the queue" for several weeks, so I thought I'd better go ahead and answer it with the information available to me at the moment. Stay tuned!
Norm Morford	on April 16, 2013 at 10:11 am
Sharon — Wow! Think of how many times I've passed that patch of woods and always assumed that some benevolent owner kept it that way to enhance the neighborhood!
Norm, I think a lot of us have passed by that corner and wondered about its mysterious past. It's obvious by the remaining manmade structures on the property that there was something more substantial there, at some time in the past. I do think the owners are intentionally keeping it in a somewhat natural state.
Gary Lowe	on April 16, 2013 at 11:18 am
Sharon – Is it fair to assume then that all taxes are current, which is why the city/state has allowed this property to sit unchanged for so long? I think it's cool to have "local legend" spots in the city. But at the same time, this is prime real estate in the heart of Washington Township, Marion County, Indianapolis.
basil berchekas jr	on April 16, 2013 at 1:50 pm
This would be an excellent spot to have a vest pocket park with some type of "gateway design" for entering the immediate Indianapolis area, given the distinctive features in the surrounding area, such as Historic Meridian Street, some blocks ahead, the distinctive Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation closer, Holliday Park nearby, as well as the Meridian Hills Country Club, and other distinctive features such as other religious buildings (like Meridian Street United Methodist Church and so forth) further down Meridian… plus similar distinctive features north on Meridian…even a small welcome center at this site would be good, designed in a semi-rustic manner befitting the woods on this site. Surely there must be a hefty tax write-off available to the owner for donating this land as park…just a suggestion..
Sharon Butsch Freeland	on April 17, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Basil, I don't know if there is a hefty tax write-off for donating land for a park, or not. Even if there is, I am not sure that the City would necessarily accept the property. From my experience in working for a nonprofit neighborhood association for several years, the IndyParks Department does not have adequate funds to maintain the parks that it already owns. The City's not having to pay acquisition costs would not necessarily be that attractive, if it did not have the means to build a welcome center and/or erect a gateway on the land, not to mention if it did not have the money to maintain the property for the foreseeable future.
FYI: Maybe there is a "Central Indiana" or "Hoosier Heartland" Land Trust available that would accept the land. They wouldn't develop it save for a quick day visit, if at all, and would only maintain the property in a natural setting (skipping the welcome center concept…land trusts don't traditionally build facilities on their properties save signage). I know the North Alabama Land Trust, for instance, has been used extensively to acquire acres of open space that would otherwise have been developed, especially steep slope land, and land for greenways in floodplains, and the traditional method of acquisition has been through tax writeoffs. How that works I don't know, but it has worked in both urban and rural settings "down here". Just an idea, Sharon. Appreciate your comment about the City. The North Alabama Land Trust has been used in lieu of the City of Huntsville here, also due to funding issues.
steven pettinga	on August 10, 2018 at 2:10 pm
COMMENT Dear basil berchekas jr. What in the world do you mean by "hefty tax write-offs? The Indiana Wildlife Federation operates on donations and sales of Indiana license plates. Yes, you can write a portion off-if you itemize …but their are extensive limits on how much you can write off. You can not eliminate your tax responsibility. The Indiana Wildlife Foundation is a very worthy charity and has done much to preserve the wild areas of Indiana. It does more good than the Sierra Club or many other national organizations. I urge everyone to support their efforts. Here are the specifics of donating to charitable or religious organizations: https://www.indianalegalservices.org/tax-tips-charitable-contributions.
COMMENT Absolutely do not trust the Indianapolis Parks Department. A 12 acre plot south of the David Wolf Bridge and west of the White River was recently donated with the expressed demand that it remain a wildlife refuge. Despite that, a couple months ago, representatives from the Parks Department presented a plan to expand the existing parking lot which can hold 12 cars at most, into a 20 or 30 car parking lot with a boat dock. They planned to develop trails and combine it with a pedestrian bridge to the cross country bike trail on the east side of the river…something I had never noticed. It would turn a wildlife refuge into a park full of people and pets; and probably be vandalized at night by the bikers. I have some friends who live in Union Chapel about a half mile or mile south of this donated land. The outrage in the room was evident and to their credit, the Nora Community Council denied the request. They also gave the two representatives from the Park's Department a real tongue lashing for ignoring this gentleman's final wishes such disregard. So many rare species (for Marion County) live along the river there. At best only canoers or kaiakers should be allowed that far up the river, otherwise, these rare animals will not feel safe and they will either stop breeding or move away to safer territory. The development north of 82nd is a good indication of how destructive developers and the city can be, Hamilton County is even worse.
Gary, Yes, all taxes on the property are current. Since the land is privately owned, the city and state really have no "say" in whether or not it gets developed. The parcel has been owned by members of the same family for nearly eight decades, so I would imagine their hanging on to it is to some extent for emotional or sentimental reasons. They can do whatever they want to (or don't want to) with it, as long as they don't violate any ordinances or zoning guidelines.
Evan Finch	on April 16, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Thanks to Becki Heusel for asking this question, and thanks to Sharon for answering it!
Thanks, Evan.
Kevin Martin	on April 16, 2013 at 11:24 pm
Great article! Thanks for this. I drive by it every day.
Thanks, Kevin. I wish I had thought to look into it sooner!
Mike	on April 17, 2013 at 7:50 am
I would like to have back the time I have spent stopped at that light on 71st heading east and looked over there and wondered about that piece of land. I won't get back the time or the time I will spend there, but at least my mind can be at rest about it now. lol. It is obvious that it was once an improved property.
Mike, I've sat at that intersection more times than I can remember, too. I hope as a result of this article, either someone who knows more about the property will come forward, OR I will get some ideas about new sources I can research. Judging by the stonework that survives today, the home that it originally enhanced was a nice one.
Louis Mahern	on April 17, 2013 at 8:58 am
In the late 1950's my brothers and I caddied at Meridians Hill Country Club. We hitchhiked to and from the course. At the end of the day we positioned ourselves on the North West corner of what we always referred to as 71st and Meridian. That position allowed us to look particularly helpless and non threatening to the motorists stopped by the traffic light. I often wondered why such a prime piece of real estate did not have a house on it.
I can just see the Mahern brothers, standing on the corner, trying to look harmless enough to catch a ride with a southbound motorist. Hitchhiking was a common practice when we were growing up. I wouldn't have thought twice about picking you up in the '60s and '70s. I wouldn't even consider it today. That I wouldn't is a sad commentary on the state of our world.
Nora	on April 17, 2013 at 11:00 am
Thanks, Sharon!
You're welcome, Nora. Hope all is well in Noraland.
Brad King	on April 17, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Thanks Sharon! I've always admired that lonely stone bridge to nowhere!
Brad, Originally, the bridge did not lead to nowhere, of course. If you look at early aerial view maps of the property on the IndyGov site, you can make out the driveways and structures. It looks as if there were entrances to the property on both Meridian Street and Meridian Hills Boulevard, with a semi-circular drive connecting the two entrances. Then there was another section of driveway that went west of the semi-circular portion and over the stone bridge to the house. Here's the link: http://maps.indy.gov/MapIndy/Index.html?theme=Zoning/ . Use the address of 7110 N. Meridian St. Click on "Streets & Aerials" at the top right of your screen. There are three bars you can slide — the vertical one on the left is the one that selects the year.
Holly Lambert	on July 9, 2013 at 4:25 pm
The stone pillar and possibly the bridge look like the work of my great-grandfather, Edward T. Shaefer, a stonemason born 1855. There is an article in the Indianapolis News (now Star) about all the stonemason work he did in Indianapolis.
Holly Lambert
Sheila	on September 30, 2013 at 6:37 am
Hi…I read this article with interest, as I grew up across the street from this property. I just wanted to clarify the fire time-period though. We moved across the street from the property when I was 4 years old (which would be 1966) and I remember the fire like it was yesterday…scared me for years! I was about 8 or 9 when the fire occurred, which would put the fire time period around 1970 or 1971. Thanks for the article!
Jody D Loney	on August 9, 2018 at 11:18 pm
I've been driving past this lot for the last two weeks. Today 8/9/18 there is a for sale sign…
Cushman & Wakefield Realty
Phil	on January 28, 2019 at 9:58 pm
Property is up for sale. So far I haven't been able to find and asking price. The home on the north side of the property on 75th St? Is not part of the sale according to the map I found on line. Hope they don't build condos or something.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We have two identical services at 9:45 am and 11:00 am in the Worship Center that feature contemporary styled music and teaching grounded in Biblical truth. Additionally, we have support programming for children (birth – 5th grade) running during both services, student ministry (for 6th-12th graders) during the 9:45 service, and adult classes running during both the 9:45 and 11:00 hours.
Infants through fifth grade students are welcome to take part in unique programming designed specifically for them during our services, while middle and high school students participate in student ministry during the 9:45 service and are encouraged to attend the main worship service with their family during the 11:00 service.