the mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrived in Guatemala this Thursday at the start of a tour of Central America and the Caribbean to try to “order” the migratory flow which is destined for the United States.
López Obrador arrived at an Air Force base in Guatemala City to later meet at the National Palace with the Guatemalan president, Alexander Giammattei.
On the border between Mexico and the United States, thousands of undocumented Central American, Cuban and Haitian migrants are often held up, who go to North America in search of work overwhelmed by the violence and poverty that afflict their countries. Many die on the way.
“This is going to require ordering the migratory flow because it is a paradox, it is a contradiction: there is a lack of labor force, labor force in the United States, in Canada and there is in Mexico, there is in Central America, but it contains , it is rejected, they are prevented from arriving,” said the president shortly before starting his trip.
“Of course it has to be an orderly flow, but we can achieve it”, he pointed. He said that in his recent meeting with President Joe Biden, he told him that he has good relations with union organizations that can accept temporary work from Mexicans and Central Americans, which could expand the granting of visas.
The leftist president said that one of the objectives of the visit to Central America is to implement the Mexican programs “Sembrando Vida” and “Youth Building the Future” to generate employment in those territories, containing migration.
The tour of the Mexican president, which will end on Sunday, includes Honduras, El Salvador, Belize and Cuba.
“Mexico has historically been very close to the region and can play an important role so that the countries together propose, mainly to the United States, policies according to the new migratory reality,” said César Ríos, director of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute.
On Wednesday, AMLO announced that his country will reinforce the border with Guatemala before a possible massive arrival of migrants trying to cross into the United States.
This could occur after the announced elimination of a US measure (Title 42) that allowed the expulsion of migrants to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled for May 23.
In 2021 alone, Mexican authorities found more than 300,000 illegal migrants; while, in the last three weeks, the United States detained 7,800 undocumented immigrants daily in the border area, almost five times the average of 2014-2019.