Guatemala on Wednesday agreed to three-way cooperation with the United States and Mexico on migration, as President Joe Biden’s hailed the approach of the Central American nation’s new government on a major political headache in Washington.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought together his counterparts from Mexico and Guatemala, where anti-corruption campaigner Bernardo Arevalo took office as president last month following unsuccessful attempts by establishment forces to block him.
A US official said that Guatemala, a major source of migrants, had agreed to start a new “operational cell” with the United States and Mexico, the key transit country, that will “jointly tackle migration issues.”
The official said Guatemala also offered to play host to a ministerial-level meeting in April of the Los Angeles Declaration, a hemisphere-wide framework for cooperation on migration reached during a summit in the California metropolis led by Biden in 2022.
“We both appreciate and admire the work of the new Arevalo administration,” Blinken said as he opened the meeting in Washington.
The United States is “very, very pleased to see the transition take place and the government not only in place, but acting strongly to meet the challenges of the moment, including the challenge of irregular migration,” Blinken said of Guatemala.
Record numbers of migrants have been seeking to enter the United States, largely from Central America and Venezuela, as they flee poverty, violence and disasters exacerbated by climate change.
The issue has emerged as a top political issue with Biden’s likely Republican challenger in November elections, former president Donald Trump, vowing more drastic action and linking the issue to a hold by his allies in Congress on assistance sought by Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.
Biden and Trump are set to make dueling trips to the border on Thursday.
The Biden administration has agreed to greater enforcement measures, but Blinken said the United States also wanted to work with Mexico and Guatemala on “safe, orderly and humane migration.”
“The bottom line for so many people around the world is that if you can’t put food on the table for your kids, you’ll try to figure out anything necessary to do that, including leaving your own country,” he said.
Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Martinez said that his country, one of the top sources of migrants, was committed under its new president to building the economy.
“We are the first who must manage the needs of our population. We must create and provide opportunities so that our people do not migrate,” he said.
“Even if we work on this effort for the next four years, we may not correct this, but we want to build a foundation for a new country.”
– © 2024 AFP
