(Washington) The heads of diplomacy of the United States, Mexico and Guatemala met Wednesday in Washington to talk about the migration crisis, the dominant subject of the American presidential campaign.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken received his Mexican counterparts Alicia Barcena and Guatemalan Carlos Martinez at the State Department in order to strengthen cooperation between the three countries in the fight against illegal immigration and to tackle its causes .
“Today, we are really here to strengthen the collaboration we have on migratory flows,” said Mr. Blinken at the start of the meeting, welcoming in particular the cooperation with Mexico in this area and working with the new government in Guatemala.
After long months of waiting, President Bernardo Arévalo was inaugurated as head of Guatemala in mid-January.
The United States is “very, very pleased to see that the transition has taken place and that the government is not only in place, but is acting firmly to address the challenges of the moment, including that of irregular migration,” Mr. Blinken said.
According to a senior US official, Guatemala will host the next ministerial meeting in April under the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration, adopted in 2022 and setting a framework for migration policy in the Western Hemisphere.
The three countries also agreed to create an “operational cell” to better collaborate on this subject, according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Record figures
The immigration crisis is one of the central themes of the US presidential election campaign this year, with Republicans rallying behind former President Donald Trump accusing Joe Biden’s administration of favoring ” an invasion” of migrants.
The Democratic president, who is running for a second term, and his probable opponent in November Donald Trump are both due to go to Texas on Thursday, taking their duel to the border with Mexico.
Irregular crossings from Mexico, mainly by Latin Americans seeking better living conditions, are reaching record numbers.
These exchanges come as Republicans in Congress have made the fight against immigration a top priority and are blocking aid to Ukraine and Israel in order to constrain President Biden on the subject.
The American Senate with a Democratic majority recently reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill toughening migration policy but it was rejected by the Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, under pressure in particular from Donald Trump.
The United States and Mexico increased the pace of these meetings, and held a series of talks in late December in Mexico City where Mr. Blinken spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, then in Washington in January.
With more than 3,000 km of border with the United States, Mexico is a country of transit and waiting for migrants, mainly from Central American countries plagued by violence or poverty (Honduras, Guatemala , Salvador), the Caribbean (Haiti, Cuba) and Venezuela.
“We are the first to have to manage the needs of our population. We must create and offer opportunities so that our citizens do not emigrate,” declared Guatemalan Minister Carlos Martinez.
reference: www.lapresse.ca