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GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris promised U.S. support to tackle issues such as corruption, in meetings with Guatemalan civil society leaders on Tuesday as the United States seeks to stop an increasing number of migrants fleeing the region.
FILE PHOTO: Guatemala s president, Alejandro Giammattei, speaks during a news conference in Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 7, 2020. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria/File Photo
“I’d love to get your thoughts on policies and in particular which U.S. policies . have and have not worked in the past,” Harris told the virtual roundtable.
President Joe Biden tapped Harris to lead U.S. efforts with Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as his administration grapples with the growing number of families and unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S. border.
While migrants from Central America stream to the U.S. border, any positive effects of Biden’s 'root-cause' strategy will be slow and incremental at best.
How the Biden-Harris Migration ‘Fix’ Would Throw Good Billions After Bad
The journey of Central American migrants to the U.S. border – a perilous trip across thousands of miles of mountains and deserts – starts in places like the dry corridor in western Honduras.
Many of the region’s 1 million small farmers still live in adobe huts with no running water and suffer acts of humans and nature. Corrupt Honduran officials have invested too little in stabilizing or modernizing the region, allowing violent gangs to extort families. Recent droughts and hurricanes have created widespread hunger.
“It’s been one crisis after another,” says Conor Walsh, the Honduras representative for Catholic Relief Services in Tegucigalpa, the capital. “Many people have already migrated and others are evaluating whether they can stay on their farms.”