The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorassured this Friday that the United States is “co-responsible” in the search for a joint solution to the problem of irregular migration from Central America and that it is based on poverty.
“Wherever you want to see it, the United States, the protagonist of the migratory phenomenon, must, consequently, be co-responsible for solving it, modifying its migratory policy,” declared the Mexican president after a meeting with his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele.
Washington must also help “combat the conditions that force millions to abandon their places of residence,” López Obrador stressed.
“We postulate that every person has the right to remain in the country in which they were born, that no one should be forced to emigrate due to hunger or violence; that no one be “riddled with bullets when crossing the border,” he exclaimed.
The solution to the migration problem must be part of a “joint effort” in which, in addition to the United States, Mexico and the three Central American countries with the highest migration, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, must be involved, AMLO considered.
The current challenges, according to López Obrador, have to do with the fight against poverty, inequality, unemployment and marginalization, among “other misfortunes.”
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 afflicts their countries. Many die on the way.
Joint Plan
For his part, President Bukele expressed his support for the Mexican proposal for a joint plan.
“We support Mexico’s proposal to the United States to make a joint plan where we all contribute according to our economies (…) to be able to solve a problem that in the end belongs to everyone and concerns us all,” Bukele emphasized. .
The Salvadoran leader considered it necessary that “successful experiences” that are promoted to discourage migration be expanded and cover the area where there is more migration to the United States.
Coming from Guatemala and as part of a tour of Central America and the Caribbean, López Obrador arrived at the Óscar Arnulfo Romero airport around noon, and after the meeting with Bukele he will continue his tour to Honduras.
Bukele and López Obrador met for the first time in June 2019 in Tapachula, state of Chiapas, Mexico.
On that occasion, López Obrador announced the financing by Mexico of his “Sembrando Vida” program in El Salvador, in order to help reduce irregular migration, mainly among young people.
With an investment of 31 million dollars, the agroforestry program was launched in July 2019 with the goal of create some 20,000 jobs. AMLO offered this Friday an extension of his program in El Salvador.
Petition to the Capitol
On Thursday, from Guatemala, López Obrador called for speed in Washington’s financial support for programs that attack poverty and violence, which lead thousands of Central Americans to irregularly migrate to the United States in search of work.
“It seems inexplicable to me that in the Capitol the approval of the 4,000 million dollars has been so delayed who offered to invest in the generation of well-being in the Central American countries,” he said.
López Obrador began a four-day tour on Thursday in which he will also visit Honduras, Belize and Cuba.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry ratified the president’s visit to Havana on Sunday, where this Friday an explosion, presumably due to a gas leak, destroyed a hotel under repair and caused at least eight deaths.
On Wednesday, AMLO announced that his country will reinforce the border with Guatemala in the face of 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), scheduled for May 23, that allowed the expulsion of migrants to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Mexican authorities found more than 300,000 irregular migrants; while, in the last three weeks, the United States detained some 7,800 undocumented immigrants daily in the border area, almost five times the average of 2014-2019.