Washington, United States
Honduran Chancellor Lisandro Rosales on Thursday called for the causes of caravans of immigrants from Central America to the United States to be addressed, warning that they have a “political” purpose that aims to “destabilize”. “in his country, in Mexico and even in the Washington Government.
In an interview with Efe, Rosales, visiting the American capital, referred to the “very productive” appointment he held with Roberta Jacobson, The special assistant of US President Joe Biden, and with National Security Adviser Joan Gonzalez, which he considered “the first high-level meeting” with the incoming government.
He also spoke about the proposed immigration reform led by the Biden Administration and the new approach that the White House seeks to imprint on its relationship with Central America.
HOPEFUL MIGRATION REFORM
question: How he assesses the relationship they are going to establish with the Prime Minister Joe Biden? How did that first contact with your delegates leave you?
Answer: Very positive. President Biden knows the region very well. In the Government of President (Barack) Obama, He as vice president led the issue of the ‘Northern Triangle’, maintained a close and close relationship with the president (of Honduras, Juan Orlando) Hernández (…) Now as president he has set the pattern for the importance that Central America and Mexico have for him.
P: One of the announcements made recently by President Biden was to design a mechanism to deal with migration in conjunction with the countries of the region, basically with the countries of Central America and those of the North Triangle. What do they expect from this kind of conversation and the immigration reform that the president is pushing for Biden?
A: It gives us a lot of hope. We have approximately 1.3 million Hondurans living here, about 700,000, 800,000 of them illegally who have come for different circumstances. At the beginning they came out for a security issue, but in Honduras we have managed to make a very important change in the last six years, a reduction from 90 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants to 37 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, which we still need to reduce. , but that has been important and now the cause of migration is no longer the insecurity that was advocated a few years ago; it is now the economic issue and is being deepened by the pandemic, the impact it has had on the Honduran economy and the damage caused by the Eta and Iota storms.
For us it is valuable to give a chance to the Hondurans to be able to be legally, working, paying their taxes and acting normally within a country that has received them, but we also talked about the next steps that are to look for these investment opportunities of American companies who can move to Honduras.
BEING TOGETHER AS A FAMILY IS A HUMAN RIGHT
Pg: The policy of the president Biden has among its central axes the reunification of families. There are more than half a thousand children who have not been reunited with their families in any way Government of Honduras could help the presidency of Biden to the fact that in case there are Honduran children, or Honduran families within those who are separated, they can finally reunite them?
R: We in our consular network have offices of migratory protection. We discussed this issue with the ambassador Jacobson in the sense of maintaining communication through our consular network and being able to have that feedback that may be required for reunification.
There are about 1,300 children, of different nationalities, who should be in family reunification, to which we have been betting.
We believe that it is a human right to be together as a family and it is important that it is done quickly and safely for children who have suffered in recent years.
CARAVANS, A TRAFFIC OF PEOPLE
P. Let’s talk about the last caravan that was organized. What happened to this caravan? What are you calling people in front of caravans? What is going on behind the caravans that are coming out?
A: First, we need to address the causes of caravans. Second, we need to identify who the organizers of this are, because there is a perverse purpose to such circumstances happening.
The caravans are not organized cleanly in Honduras, there are external factors and we have information from investigations that have been conducted through intelligence sources where there are foreigners involved in such organizations.
I believe that we, and we raised it precisely to Mr. Juan González and Mrs. Jacobson, the fact that we must judicialize these networks of human trafficking that occur, because these caravans do not have a simple purpose of being able to mobilize, but they have a political purpose.
If we can see who is organizing these groups, it is the like-minded groups in Venezuela that what they want is to destabilize not only Honduras, but Guatemala, Mexico and even the United States on this given route.
We have to see who these types of people really are who are scrupulous in attacking Hondurans, who put them at risk, who put them in danger on a path of grief and pain that has already generated dead people, that has already generated mutilated people. and that is where these unscrupulous people who promote this type of caravans hide.
We have clearly identified, we must make adjustments to the legislation where it allows the prosecution of these gangs of criminals engaged in human trafficking, that the caravan is human trafficking.
(…) But this type of caravan only tells us that there is a purpose to generate chaos, to generate instability regardless of the rights of people who for one reason or another are embarked on this type of adventures.
Q: How do you assess Guatemala and Mexico’s response to this caravan in 2021?
A: They are in their rights to defend their territories. Mexico’s response to moving military units to the border is a right very typical of Mexico, Guatemala as well.
We do believe that there should be no disrespect, but, as I say, there are adverse interests of countries that want to destabilize the Central American region and seek to do so through such irregular migratory movements.
HONDURES DID NOT RECEIVE FOREIGNERS UNDER ASYLUM AGREEMENTS
P: The Asylum Cooperation Agreements that had been signed with the Donald Trump Administration. Ambassador Jacobson said that in the case of Honduras they had not been launched.
A: I understand that in the last minutes a communication came out from the White House, where it said that this asylum collaboration agreement was suspended. We did not receive any exile or asylum that was in this agreement.
But we do have to go further and talk to the new administration about the issues and we did the same with Ambassador Jacobson, because part of the agreements was the opportunity for workers in both the agro and the food industry. the cruise could come to work in the US and it was something she took topic of conversation and agility to look for alternatives to people.
We did not receive any foreigners in national territory. Whether (the agreement) is suspended is a determination of the US, but we do want to continue in this dialogue on the opportunity to migrate legally with work visas to the United States. EFE