Soros? GOP Rep. Posts Video Purportedly Showing People Being Paid To Join Honduran Caravan [CORRECTION]
CORRECTION: Though this article was originally published as speculative, information revealed after its publication indicates that the speculation by Rep. Matt Gaetz on Twitter was largely unfounded. George Soros has specifically denied any involvement in the migrant caravans, a claim the BBC and others have investigated but found no evidence to support.
Gaetz himself also issued a correction of his tweet, stating that he believed the video had been taken in Honduras but it had actually been taken in Guatemala.
CORRECTION: This video was provided to me by a Honduran government official. Thus, I believed it to be from Honduras. https://t.co/PYASc9vOLB
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 18, 2018
Guatemalan journalist Luis Assardo also investigated the claims but found no support for them.
Ayer @RepMattGaetz publicó un video donde asegura que en Honduras le daban dinero a los miembros de la #CaravanaDeMigrantes
Él mismo alienta a que se investigue la fuente. Así que en el hilo va info. pic.twitter.com/wy67ck2Myv— Luis Assardo (@luisassardo) October 18, 2018
We apologize for any inconvenience the publication of this speculation may have caused, but are leaving the article in place so that anyone directed to it will see the correction.
Are poor Hondurans being bribed to join the latest migrant caravan heading for the U.S. border … and if so, who is paying them?
That’s the question that Rep. Matt Gaetz is raising after he discovered footage of a strange scene allegedly shot in Central America.
On Wednesday, the Florida Republican posted a one-minute video that appears to show women being handed cash to join a group — possibly, according to Gaetz, to be part of a slow-moving horde that plans on making its way north through Mexico and then into the United States.
The suspicious timing of the caravan, just three weeks before November’s midterm elections, and questions about what was happening in the clip were both raised by Gaetz on Twitter.
BREAKING: Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source! pic.twitter.com/5pEByiGkkN
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 17, 2018
“Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time,” the congressman posted.
“Soros?” he continued, referring to one of the most infamous wealthy backers of liberal political movements, billionaire George Soros.
“US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source!” Gaetz wrote.
Information was not immediately available regarding where the video came from or what, precisely, it showed. More than 15,000 Twitter users responded to the post online, and the comments about the video were overwhelmingly against illegal immigration.
While many details about the clip are still missing, Gaetz’s allegation would have serious implications if it is accurate. A scheme that paid poor Central American citizens to leave their country and march toward the U.S. border would help explain the speed at which the latest caravan has grown in size.
“Up to 3,000 migrants crossed from Honduras into Guatemala on Monday on a trek northward, after a standoff with police in riot gear and warnings from Washington that migrants should not try to enter the United States illegally,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
“The crowd more than doubled in size from Saturday, when some 1,300 people set off from northern Honduras in what has been dubbed ‘March of the Migrant,'” the news service continued.
It probably wouldn’t take much money to tempt them. The average monthly income in Honduras is about $230 U.S., and that’s if a person actually has a job in its shattered economy.
There are a number of plausible explanations for the footage shared by Gaetz, including the possibility of a non-governmental organization trying to assist the migrants by handing out cash for their unsanctioned journey.
Gaetz’s theory about somebody like Soros pulling strings to influence what is happening may be less likely, but it certainly is worth considering.
InfluenceWatch, a project from the Capital Research Center that tracks the funding of various groups, lists several Soros-backed movements in the category of “Mass Mobilization.”
The leftist billionaire has been linked to disruptive organizations including Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, and may be linked to the radical far-left group “antifa” as well.
“(T)he left-wing billionaire George Soros has ties to Antifa through a group called the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ),” explained the Capital Research Center. “Soros’s philanthropy, known at the time as the Open Society Institute, gave $100,000 to AfGJ.”
Considering that Soros is also an avowed advocate of open borders in Europe, according to The Daily Caller, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for him to have his financial tentacles in the growing Central American immigration crisis.
More and more, political issues are not exactly what they seem. It’s time to follow the money and dig into what is happening with the migrant situation — and it wouldn’t be surprising if there were some shady figures pulling levers behind the scenes.
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