The event takes place in the archaeological area of Palenque, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, in a regional context in which thousands of people are trying to reach the United States and who use this area as a passage to the northern country.
The call was made by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to his colleagues from Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Haiti, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama to see how they are doing mutually develop a plan for social welfare, which he gave this name to emphasize the brotherhood of the neighboring cities.
The goal is to “take care of people in their places of origin, because migration does not happen for pleasure but for necessity,” López Obrador told the media when he arrived at the site yesterday.
According to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, participants at the migration summit will “analyze the causes of human mobility, such as poverty, inequality, lack of employment opportunities” and also explore “coordinated measures” for an orderly transit of people.
On January 24, during the VII Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires, President Petro stated that he had asked the Mexican President to hold the meeting on the migration problem in the region.
“I proposed to the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that we hold a summit on migration,” President Petro said, adding that “migration is linked to the climate crisis, among several reasons and causes.”
The Colombian head of state explained: “When people run out of water and food, they go north, to where there is water.”
He pointed out that the answer was “not machine guns and walls,” but “concluding an orderly migration deal.”
Likewise, last March, Colombia’s Foreign Minister, Álvaro Leyva, met in Mexico City with that country’s then Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, to discuss the Latin American and Caribbean Migration Conference initiative.
On September 17 last year, Petro spoke to the Colombian community living in New York about this issue as part of his visit to attend the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
“The ordering of migration is fundamental and must be an agreement with the United States; There are set quotas for migrants to bring (workers) here legally and to ensure that the two needs come together: the desire to want to work here and the need for there to be work here,” he said.
He warned that three thousand people pass through the Darién Gap every day with the aim of reaching the United States.
“So far half a million people have passed by, although we have not counted enough because we cannot know for sure,” Petro emphasized.
ode/otf