Tegucigalpa.
Honduras has been in dialogue with the Joe Biden Administration on the issue of migration in a comprehensive and permanent manner since February, Central American Chancellor Lisandro Rosales said in Tegucigalpa on Monday.
“With us (the United States) they are already more advanced, we are already talking about specific issues, specific programs and projects,” Rosales emphasized when explaining why the US special envoy for the North American Triangle , Ricardo Zúñiga, has not included Honduras in his visit that began this Monday, and until Thursday, in Guatemala and El Salvador.
Some local analysts believe that Zúniga is not coming to Honduras because of allegations of corruption sprinkled by the government and the life sentence handed down in New York, On March 30, for drug trafficking, against Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, brother of the Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández.
In a statement from the Honduran Chancellery, Rosales indicated that last Friday he spoke with Ricardo Zúñiga.
“I am glad for El Salvador and Guatemala that they are already initiating these dialogues with the United States. Honduras began on February 4,” the senior Honduran official stressed.
He added that he, along with other representatives of the Government of Honduras, met with the Ambassador and Special Envoy of the United States to the North Triangle of Central America and Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, and the Director. for the Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council, Juan González.
“This Easter we had a very fruitful conversation, of about 40 minutes, with Ricardo (Zúñiga),” Rosales said.
In this conversation, he added, “we are finalizing details of the working tables we have been engaging bilaterally with the United States since February 4.”
Conversations will continue in Washington
According to Rosales, the conversations of the Honduran government with Zúñiga will continue on April 9 in Washington, where in addition to the issue of migration will address the work promoted by Honduras since February 4 such as national reconstruction and hemispheric security.
In Washington will participate the heads of the Secretaries of General Coordination of Government, Security and Defense, and officials of the Secretariat of Human Rights, he delimited.
Rosales said that addressing the issue of migration is always done in a comprehensive manner and this includes respect for the human rights of Honduran migrants, the generation of development opportunities in the country and the necessary actions to prevent the causes that cause migration .
In the last four years, thousands of Hondurans have left in caravans with the idea of arriving in the United States, citing the lack of employment and insecurity in their country, and that their situation was aggravated by the covid pandemic. 19 which since March has affected Honduras and the damage caused by tropical storms Eta and Iota, in November.
The Honduran chancellor also downplayed questions from the US congresswoman Torres standard to the Government of Honduras, associated with drug trafficking and corruption, which he attributed to the fact that she is only “one of the 438 congressmen the United States has” and “often does not have the right information.”