FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
U.S. and Mexico To Debate Solutions to Immigration Crisis
Nov. 28, 2018 (EIRNS)—There is a flurry of diplomatic activity taking place around the issue of how to resolve the terrible crisis of Central American migration, which has created an untenable situation for Mexico, and a crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border.
On Dec. 2, one day after Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, is sworn in as Mexico’s President, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in Mexico City to meet with the new Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard to discuss the matter.
According to Reuters, Pompeo is confident he is close to getting an agreement from the AMLO government, whereby Mexico would set up processing centers in the country, and Central American immigrants would wait there while their asylum requests for the U.S. were processed. There is not universal agreement inside Mexico on this proposal, however.
Another proposal that has been raised is the idea of a Marshall Plan to ensure the development of Mexico—especially its southern region—and the three “Northern Triangle” countries of Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. According to several media outlets, Ebrard wants to enlist Canada and the U.S. in a Marshall Plan which would require a $20 billion investment in southern Mexico, and another $20 billion for the three Central American nations. Reuters reports that members of AMLO’s transition team, led by Ebrard, have been discussing this with U.S. officials and it will be addressed further at the Dec. 2 meeting with Pompeo. Ebrard has said that while a regional development program may not be exactly like the Marshall Plan, it will be similar in terms of the magnitude of the effort required to address the region’s problems.
Also on Dec. 1 in Mexico City, the heads of state of the three Northern Triangle nations, together with López Obrador, will officially sign a Plan for the Comprehensive Development of Central America, elaborated at a Nov. 23 meeting of these nations’ foreign ministers in Guatemala, to address the causes of and solutions to the wrenching poverty and violence that afflicts the region and compels people to emigrate.
According to El Diario de Coahuila, this document will also be presented on Dec. 10-11 at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Global Compact for Migration in Marrakesh, Morocco, held under the auspices of the UN General Assembly. The plan is officially backed by the UN’s Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), whose director Alicia Barcena attended the Nov. 23 meeting in Guatemala.
