Central America’s ‘Northern Triangle’ leaders to ask Obama for US aid to stem immigration

AFP July 21, 2014

The leaders of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala plan to ask U.S. President Barack Obama for help funding projects to stem immigration during White House talks next week.

The presidents will meet next Friday over the humanitarian crisis triggered by some 57,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America who have traveled illegally to the United States since October.

“We want to discuss with Obama structural measures, by which we mean investing in the immigrants’ communities of origin to generate opportunities and create more security for our people,” Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez told state television Channel 10.

The “Northern Triangle” leaders plan to request employment and security aid when they meet with Obama.

The tide of unaccompanied youths has overwhelmed U.S. border patrol, shelters and immigration courts, and prompted Obama to warn parents in Central America not to send their kids to the United States in search of a better life.

Guatemala’s Otto Pérez Molina, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras and Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador, together with their foreign ministers, will attend the discussions with Obama.

“We hope that afterwards there will be increased cooperation from the United States,” Martínez said.