Details Published: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 7:56 AM Hits: 5
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Panama City, April 19. – Panama draws the attention of Latin America and the Caribbean today as the ministerial conference on migration begins, the first in person after two years of COVID-19 and with recommendations for its conclusion tomorrow.
Among the representatives of 20 nations confirmed for the event, the presence of the North American Secretary of State made headlines and widely featured in the local press; Antony Blinken, representative of one of the destination countries of irregular migration, along with Mexico and Canada.
The Joe Biden administration’s senior envoy – who has been questioned over unilateral measures against nations like Cuba that encourage irregular and unsafe migration – is leading a delegation that includes Secretary of State for National Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who yesterday and advanced ankam has already visited migrant support centers in the eastern province of Darién.
For analysts like Antonio Saldaña, the real objective of the visit of the two White House heavyweights to the isthmus is to reconcile the “backyard” with the outlines of the North American war strategy that has divided two nations of the old continent. (Ukraine and Russia) and is based on the hegemonic vision and global unipolarity promoted by the Biden administration.
An official note from the Panamanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presenting the meeting predicts a dialogue to comprehensively monitor “the challenges posed by irregular migration on the continent,” with increasingly high flows.
Statistics from the National Immigration Service show that in the first quarter of 2022 alone, 13,425 people (17 percent minors) traveled through the dangerous Darién Jungle on the border with Colombia en route to the United States, registering 5,622 in the same period in 2021.
The continental gathering comes weeks before Washington lifted border restrictions with Mexico, removing a rule allowing for the immediate expulsion of migrants, known as Title 42, which experts say would result in unpredictable flows.
Other researchers recall that the controversial issue dates back to the IX. America Summit June 6-10 in Los Angeles, California, so the isthmus would now only house the presentation of statements related to the biggest event in a month.
The retreats in Panama will end tomorrow, Wednesday, with press releases and recommendations that some believe will primarily be aimed at the countries of origin and transit of rampant irregular migration.
Blinken will also meet with the President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo; and her counterpart Erika Mouynes; and will even tour the Panama Canal “to review this important component of regional and international trade.”
He will also exchange views with representatives of multilateral development banks, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations.
With all of them, he will address issues of economic recovery, migration, refugee protection, fighting corruption and supporting civil society.
Also on the agenda of the head of US diplomacy is a roundtable with civil society leaders in the region to discuss transparency and the fight against corruption.
I hope I have time, as Mouynes foresaw on a recent trip to Asia, to analyze the reforms to the Trade Facilitation Agreement between the two nations, which went into effect in October 2012 and is having implications for national producers and the pocketbooks of ordinary Panamanians.
The presence of Blinken and Mayorkas, the first of them in Panama, is denied by popular movements such as the National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights, which announced this Tuesday a rally at the monument in honor of those who fell in the feat of March 9-19 January 1964 to condemn the arrival of the war envoys. (mountain range)