“I am optimistic,” said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as he arrived in Palenque, in the border state of Chiapas, on Saturday evening for a regional meeting he had convened.
Mexico is a country of origin, transit and destination for migrants. His president’s focus has been on expanding social programs abroad to reduce interest in emigration, but the number of people traveling through the region does not stop increasing.
So far this year, more than 420,000 people have crossed the Darién jungle, the irregular crossing that connects Colombia to Panama, and U.S. authorities intercepted more than two million migrants last year.
Mexico, like the United States, has decided to increase deportations of those people who find themselves in an irregular situation in the country and, on the same weekend, announced the tightening of visa requirements for citizens of many countries of origin of immigration, requiring a visa even then is required if it concerns only foreigners wanting a stopover at a Mexican airport.
Human rights organizations asked to use the meeting to strengthen international protection systems in the region and regular migration routes.
It is expected that there will be public comments in the afternoon after several closed-door sessions.
The main focus of the day is expected to be Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro and Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, whose presence was confirmed by López Obrador.
Venezuela is one of the region’s main senders of migrants fleeing the major economic, political and human rights crisis facing the South American country, although agreements between the government and opposition have made progress recently.
According to Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, 60,000 Venezuelans entered Mexico in September, a monthly figure that “we cannot possibly cope with.”
Representatives from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama and Venezuela will be present in Palenque.
The meeting comes two weeks after a high-level meeting between U.S. and Mexican authorities and as both countries step up deportations.
Washington resumed direct deportations to Cuba in April and to Venezuela this week. For his part, Bárcena said on Tuesday in the Senate that returns to Cuba and Honduras had already been intensified and were also being carried out to Venezuela.
SPRING: Associated Press