Internacionales

Agreement to promote regional development to address migration

Photo: Presidencia de Cuba

October 23 |

Latin American countries participating in the Palenque Summit on migration, held this Sunday in the Mexican state of Chiapas (southwest), agreed to develop and implement an action plan for development to address the structural causes of migration in the region.

The meeting was attended by leaders and high-level representatives from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama and Venezuela.

Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, read the communiqué-declaration of the “Palenque Meeting: for a fraternal neighborhood with well-being”, which defined that the main causes of the growing irregular migratory flow faced by the region are structural and of economic, political and social origin, in addition to factors linked to climate change.

The participants considered that the current exodus is also caused by external factors, such as unilateral restrictive measures of a criminal nature applied by third countries, which affect entire communities and, to a greater extent, the most vulnerable population groups.

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In addition, they warned of the need to address irregular migration from a human rights (HR) perspective, in order to address its structural causes and regulate migratory flows jointly.

In light of this diagnosis, the heads of state and high-level representatives of the 11 countries agreed to develop a development action plan to address the structural causes of irregular migration in the region, which will be based on priority objectives and an understanding of the realities of each country.

Priority areas were defined as: food production and recovery of the agricultural sector, environmental preservation, employment generation, energy security (including migration to clean energy and decarbonization processes), health self-sufficiency, intra-regional trade and investment, and combating organized crime, corruption and human trafficking.

The heads of state and government, as well as high-level representatives attending Chiapas, urged an end to unilateral coercive measures and emphasized that they are contrary to international law.

The plan of action included the promotion of intra-regional trade and preferential tariffs for basic goods and services; the call for countries of origin, transit and destination to respect the right to migrate, safeguard the lives of migrants and create regularization options; and a call for destination countries to adopt migration policies in line with the regional reality and abandon selective policies, such as those that allow the regularization of certain nationalities.

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It also called for a decisive contribution to Haiti’s sustainable development, the reestablishment of its human security environment and the normalization of its economic, political and social situation.

Other actions that make up this plan are to propose in a coordinated manner that the international financial debt architecture be rethought so that lower income countries achieve a higher level of development and reduce the intention to emigrate, and to request destination countries to expand regular, orderly and safe channels for emigration, with an emphasis on labor migration.

The participants in the Palenque Summit agreed to hold dialogues at the highest level on these issues through a working group to be created by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs. It was made clear that these agreements will be linked to the High Level Meeting on Migration and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, proposed by Colombia and Mexico, which will take place in the first quarter of 2024.

In addition, they proposed to the governments of Cuba and the United States to hold a comprehensive dialogue on their bilateral relations as soon as possible.

Referring to the meeting, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, recalled that the country has faced more than 930 unilateral coercive measures and that during the “Palenque Meeting: for a fraternal neighborhood with well-being” it was demanded that the U.S. and other nations put an end to them.

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He expressed that Venezuela will fully support the approved action plan. He highlighted the unity expressed by the participants to adopt a development model and their own path that would result in integration, as the Liberator Simón Bolívar would have wished.

Internacionales

Mexico deploys 12,000 security agents to Guerrero amid escalating violence

Mexico’s National Defense Minister, Ricardo Trevilla, announced on Tuesday the deployment of over 12,000 security agents to the southern state of Guerrero, an area recently plagued by violence and insecurity following a series of armed attacks.

Trevilla explained that the contingent consists of more than 4,200 military personnel and an additional 8,400 members of the National Guard. These forces are operating across three distinct fronts where “local group confrontations” have led to a severe state of instability and violence.

The Defense Minister also highlighted that more than 670 marijuana plantations have been destroyed, over 430 kilos of marijuana seized, and more than 1,400 kilos of cocaine confiscated. To date, authorities have detained over fifty individuals.

In recent weeks, Guerrero has seen a wave of armed attacks by criminal organizations, including Los Adillos, who are responsible for the killing of the Chilpancingo mayor and eleven other members of a local family, as noted by El Universal newspaper.

Internacionales

Tropical storm Rafael weakens over gulf of Mexico after devastating Cuba

Rafael weakened on Sunday into a low-pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico, after striking Cuba last week as a Category 3 hurricane, according to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) based in Miami.

The NHC reported on Sunday that the post-tropical cyclone was located about 560 kilometers (345 miles) north-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 55 km/h (35 mph). It was moving eastward at 6 km/h (3 mph) and was expected to turn south towards southern Mexico as it continued to weaken.

Meteorologists warned that the storm was likely to produce dangerous waves and rip currents along parts of the northern and western Gulf coast.

Rafael made landfall on Wednesday in western Cuba. Its strong winds left the entire island without electricity, forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people, and knocked down hundreds of homes.

Internacionales

President Xi Jinping to Attend BRICS Summit in Russia as International Attention Grows

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the XVI BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24, as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.

The upcoming summit, the first held after the expansion of BRICS, has attracted significant attention from the international community, stated another spokesperson for the ministry, Mao Ning.

According to Mao, Xi will participate in both small and large leader meetings and the BRICS Plus leaders’ dialogue, delivering important speeches. He will also engage in in-depth exchanges with leaders from other countries regarding the current international situation, practical BRICS cooperation, the development of the BRICS mechanism, and other significant issues of common interest.

Mao noted that since the inception of BRICS, member states have committed to upholding multilateralism and becoming a positive, stabilizing, and benevolent force in international affairs.

China is willing to work with all parties to ensure stable and lasting progress in BRICS cooperation, open a new era of unity and overcoming challenges for the Global South, and jointly promote global peace and development, added Mao.