The leaders of more than a dozen Latin American countries, meeting on Sunday in Mexico, called on the United States to change its handling of the crisis of the influx of irregular migrants to its borders through their countries.
For Washington, the migration crisis is enormous and fundamental, with political repercussions the size of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Without naming the United States, the presidents of Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and other Latin American leaders called on the countries that migrants seek to reach to put an end to “inconsistent and selective policies” such as allowing the entry of holders of certain nationalities but not others.
They also urged the same countries to expand the legal and safe pathways that migrants can rely on to move to wealthier countries, in an implicit reference to allowing workers seeking a better life to move out of countries where corruption, poverty and violence committed by criminal gangs are widespread.
The final statement of the summit, held in the southern Mexican city of Palenque, was read by the minister of foreign affairs of the host country Alicia Barcena.
The statement urged an end to the” unilateral coercive measures ” imposed on some countries, in an implicit reference to the US sanctions imposed on Cuba.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wrote on the “X” platform at the start of the summit that his country wants to unite efforts, will and resources to address the causes of the migration phenomenon.
“This is a humanitarian issue on which we must act united,”he stressed.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the border area between Mexico and the United States is one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.
This year alone, 1.7 million migrants have arrived at the US-Mexico border, as immigration has become a hot political issue in the two countries that are witnessing presidential elections next year.
In September, 60 thousand migrants arrived in Mexico from Venezuela, along with 35 thousand Guatemalans and 27 thousand Hondurans, according to the Mexican government.
Lopez Obrador received his Venezuelan counterparts Nicolas Maduro, Cuban Miguel Diaz-Canel and Colombian Gustavo Petro, along with other officials.
The leaders met in the southernmost state of Chiapas, which has become a transit point for thousands of people from South and Central America and the Caribbean trying to cross Mexico to the United States.
