LOS ANGELES: US Vice President Kamala Harris has pooled US$3.2 billion in corporate pledges aimed at addressing some of the economic factors driving migration from Central America, her office said on Tuesday (Jun 7), lending impetus to measures to be discussed at the Summit of the Americas this week.
The new commitments from companies, including Visa and the apparel company Gap, exceed US$1.9 billion, adding to US$1.2 billion made in December. The latest round of corporate investments announced by Harris are intended to create jobs, expand access to the internet and bring more people into the formal banking system.
The pledges form a major part of President Joe Biden’s plan to address “root causes” of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a region known as the Northern Triangle. Curbing irregular migration is a top priority for Biden at a time when record numbers of people are trying to enter the United States at the Mexican border.
Biden, who travels to Los Angeles on Wednesday for the US-hosted summit, will also promote a new economic plan for the Western Hemisphere building on existing trade agreements, US officials said.
Even as he grapples with pressing concerns such as mass shootings, high inflation and the Ukraine war, the Democratic president wants to use the summit to repair Latin America relations damaged under his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, and to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
But the administration’s decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which prompted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to stay away, has threatened to overshadow Biden’s agenda.
However, US efforts to stem migration from the Northern Triangle have been hampered by corruption, with projects likely worth millions shelved and some private sector engagement stalled.
Further complicating matters, the presidents of Guatemala and Honduras have signalled they will not attend the summit and will instead send other officials. It was unclear whether El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele would attend, but the White House’s official guest list shows his foreign minister as head of the delegation.
Several thousand migrants, many from Venezuela, set off from southern Mexico on Monday on a journey to the United States timed to coincide with the summit.
At least 6,000 people, according to Reuters witnesses, left the city of Tapachula, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala.