There is no agreement to militarize the borders of the Northern Triangle, says the United States

Voice of America / The Herald

“The United States has not reached concrete agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to deploy more troops on its borders,” said Ricardo Zuniga, the State Department’s special envoy for the Northern Triangle, during a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Northern Triangle. Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives In the Western Hemisphere, civil security, immigration, and international economic policy.

His statement, which was repeated by Voice of America, contradicts what he announced White House The previous week when spokeswoman Jane Saki said that such border security agreements had been reached.

Zونيñiga also stressed that what they agree on is that “it is very important to continue to work together and cooperate to manage immigration in a way that improves the security of each country, and allows governments to apply the law at their borders as well as makes the United States stipulate”.

Visit the E&N website for news of SMEs and entrepreneurs: estrategiaynegocios.net/pyme-emprende

Jane Psaki’s announcement assumed that Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico would mobilize thousands of soldiers and police officers on their borders.However, the Guatemalan government confirmed that no document had been signed.

In the case of Honduras, the Honduran ambassador to Washington, Luis Suazo, denied that consideration had been given to mobilizing more Honduran army and police to the border with Guatemala to stop irregular migration.

For his part, Defense Minister Freddie Diaz stressed that although Honduras is not currently mobilizing new elements on the border, it is working on a plan that specifies the increase in troops on the border, and how soldiers can join the National Police and immigration authorities to stop immigration.

In addition, he indicated that as for the plan, governments Northern Triangle They will receive resources from the northern countries. However, at the Zúñiga hearing, Democratic legislator Joaquín Castro questioned him about it, explaining that what had happened was “ongoing talks about how to reduce the flow of immigration”.

Phrases cause confusion

White House spokeswoman Jane Psaki announced last week that she had agreed that Mexico keep 10,000 troops on the southern border. Meanwhile, Guatemala will install 1,500 police and military personnel on its border with Mexico, and has agreed to set up 12 checkpoints. Honduras, for its part, will displace 7,000 police and military personnel on its borders.

Download our printed version: Just click here

The Guatemalan government said in a statement on Wednesday that “1,500 of the aforementioned security forces” are part of the specific deployment that Guatemala announced before massive influxes of people arrived “in January”.

In this sense, Psaki reiterated this Wednesday that “what we are focusing on is seeing how we can work with these countries to determine how to discourage travel and dissuade migrants from making the journey.”