On Saturday, Jim and I watched part of the inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as President of Mexico. Dare I say it was relaxing? I supported AMLO pretty strongly. No one can predict the future, but this is a man who seems determined to do good for the country. And, yes, he is a socialist.
Among his many concerns,of course, is immigration. Immigrants clustering around border cities are hard on Mexico and on the immigrants, more so than on the US which has created a mess for itself as well as a disastrous mess for many immigrants. AMLO and those around him are proposing various approaches. One of them is targeted aid to the three countries sending the most people: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Below is my translation of an article on this subject in today's La Jornada by Alma E, Muñoz, Rosa Elvira Vargas and Nestor Jimenez.
You´ll notice there is no mention of the USA or of Trump.
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Mexico City, 1 December -- The president fo Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, agreed with the governments of El Salvador, Guateala and Honduras to establish the bases of understanding for constructing a Plan of Integral Development which would propel the development and opportunities of the region, contributing to the prevention of the migration phenomenon and attacking its structural causes simultaneously. [During the meal] which López Obrador offered his international guests in the National Palace, the document was signed by the presidents of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales Cabrera and of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado as well as by the Vice President of El Salvador, Óscar Samuel Ortiz Ascencio.
"El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are grateful for the initiative of the president of the United Mexican States at developing new resources and contributing with his own experience to this joint effort," the signed agreement said.
The agreement contemplates working on the creation of a fund, with the basic objective of implementing the Plan of Integral Development which includes program, projects and specific actions to bring about jobs and to combat poverty.
With this agreement, the government of Mexico emphasizes that it is committed to the region of the Northern Triangle to strengthen social development and combat in an integrated manner the causes of the migratory phenomenon.
The presidents told their respective ministries that they would work with the support of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL in the Spanish) to coordinate in the first trimester of 2019 the identification and unification of areas of existing opportunity, in accordance with the Plan of Integral Development and its future implementation with the Objectives of Sustainable Development and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations and the World Pact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration.