The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), asked his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to invest $ 4 billion in Central America to address the migration phenomenon.
In his daily morning conference, AMLO indicated that programs such as those that his government has established in Mexico, “Sowing life” and “Young people building the future,” could be promoted in that territory.
“We are cultivating one million hectares of fruit and timber trees, 420 thousand farmers are being employed, how much does it cost us? $ 1.2 billion. If this program, which can be applied in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, is expanded to 4 million hectares, we would speak of one million 600 thousand jobs, approximately, how much would it cost? Around 4 billion dollars a year, but we have to do it now, ”he said.
In this sense, the Mexican president omitted the multiple criticisms that the “Sembrando vida” program has faced due to the lack of prior regulation and during its application, which has allowed peasants to deforest previously protected areas to plant more and obtain more. resources.
The minister of foreign relations, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, pointed out that if Mexico invests 100 million dollars, the United States may well invest 2 billion a year.
“With something like this we would make the largest social welfare program that has been done in all of history in Central America and southern Mexico. We are awaiting your response, “he added.
Ebrard recalled that an agreement was made with Honduras and El Salvador for the Youth Building the Future and Sowing Life programs, “with Guatemala we will do it very soon.”
The official also omitted the criticism that the Mexican federal government has received for these agreements with Central America, because at the same time that AMLO intends to “help” Central America, in Mexico the budget for the health sector, for environmental care, has been reduced or eliminated. and the protection of women.
During the mandate of the current president, in the Aztec country shelters for battered women, agreements with civil associations that provided free treatment against breast cancer, have been eliminated, and 75% of the budget allocated to the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas has been reduced. , making it impossible to monitor the damage to them.