Mexico, Central America, UN Propose Regional Development Program, Inviting Trump To Join

May 22 (EIRNS)—In a May 20 press conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Alicia Barcena, head of the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard presented a program for developing northern Central America and southern Mexico, as the only competent way to deal with the migration problem afflicting the entire region, including the United States.

President Donald Trump, López Obrador announced, has been invited to join this initiative, and has shown interest, as have other members of his administration. The hope, López Obrador said, is that an agreement can be signed with the U.S. to move forward with the program as soon as possible.

Ebrard put a $10 billion price tag on the program, to last a decade, through 2030. As López Obrador said in his remarks to the diplomatic community, UN officials, and other dignitaries, this program is a top priority for him, and he is hopeful that the United States, and Donald Trump, will participate and sign an agreement to become a partner.

Barcena described the program as a “paradigm shift,” one which emphasizes “human security” rather than national security, and focuses on creating economic prosperity, health, education, and jobs, so that people will want to stay in their nations, rather than leave. She called for a huge increase in social spending, to help alleviate poverty, and outlined a series of specific proposals, including energy integration to consolidate the electric interconnection between Mexico and Central American countries, lowering energy costs. Improving infrastructure on the Mexican-Guatemalan border, building a natural gas pipeline extending into El Salvador, and rail integration among the countries of the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) and Mexico, were among several of the proposals.

While the program usefully focuses on infrastructure building, energy and trade integration, rail connectivity, and making “social welfare” a top priority, if it is to succeed, it will also have to address the London-run drug trade, which now dominates the economy and social conditions throughout the region. In its published version, the program only takes note of the enormous violence in the region. As EIR has emphasized, in addition to a program for regional industrialization, in which the U.S., China, India, Russia, and others should be involved, there must be a regional offensive to take on London’s Dope, Inc. apparatus in all its ramifications, in order to end the poverty and underdevelopment that feeds the drug trade and related migrant crisis.