CENTRAL AMERICA NEWS – (Prensa Latina) The United States disregarded the Central American demands to join efforts to contribute to reverse the causes of the immigration of thousands of infants and adolescents, according to political observers in Honduras.
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In the meeting held on July 25, rather than accepting the proposal to articulate bilateral development plans, U.S. President Barack Obama requested the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to reinforce local policies against migration and warned of the expenses paid by his government to step up surveillance in the area bordering Mexico.
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Obama acknowledged a shared responsibility in the problem; however, he hardly asked the presidents of the immigrants’ countries of origin to continue discouraging the movement of people and also ratified that, within a legal and humanitarian framework, the minors that are not claimed by relatives in the United States will be deported.
Meanwhile, press reports in this region recall old bilateral links that would justify a more effective support from the United States.
The chaos for the crossing of some 60,000 illegal minors alone from Guatemala, El Salvador, and mainly Honduras, resulted from a decade of social and political disorder in those countries, said the on-line edition of Honduran La Tribuna newspaper
Those child immigrants come from perennial poor nations to which Washington paid a last attention when it needed a base for anti-Communist operations during Cold War, said the newspaper.
The source said that the Central American presidents brought to the meeting with Obama a proposal to reinforce security and development cooperation agreements, but Washington failed to make a bipartisan commitment in this regard.
