The United States announces an aid plan to Central America to relaunch the Summit of the Americas

Dinner was early Monday, American style, in one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles, in the hands of the same family for nearly 100 years. at the table of “The colo” they saw each other I also miss the enchiladas, tacos and so many VIP guestswith US Vice President Kamala Harris leading a private meeting with businessmen and personalities involved in a strong initiative that was launched publicly just this Tuesday.

This was revealed by the deputy head of the White House there will be nearly $ 2 trillion in private investment directed to three Central American countries as part of the Joe Biden administration’s strategy to reduce immigration across the southern border.

The meeting at the restaurant served to celebrate the announcement of this initiative, which was launched as part of the IX Summit of the Americasstarted on Monday with various civil and business forums.

This Wednesday the leaders of the entire region begin to arrive (with some significant absences) to discuss various issues such as migration, climate change, democracy and post-pandemic recoveryamong others, until Friday.

The surroundings of the Convention Center in the city center are already closed to traffic and this Tuesday workers can already be seen placing tall iron fences for greater safety of the leaders of the region who will be landing in Los Angeles starting Wednesday, including Biden and Alberto Fernández.

The new private industry investments announced by Harris are mainly directed to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, il three countries from which caravans of hundreds of thousands of people arrive in the United States across the border into Mexico, in a wave that has increased since Biden took office and which can complicate it in an election year.

With Tuesday’s announcement, the US wants the private sector to generate jobs and economic growth in those countries that discourage migration to escape poverty, corruption and gang violence.

At launch, Harris said this new section joins another precedent of his “Call for Action” program, which in total has already generated commitments of $ 3,200 million.

Among the initiatives announced on Tuesday by Harris are theInvestments of 10 leading companies in the United Statessuch as Gap, Millicom, Agroamérica, COATL, Millicom, Pantaleon, SanMar, Unifi, Visa and Yazaki, which will invest in various sectors.

Migration is one of the central issues of the Summit and the United States had encouraged the signing of a regional commitment to this effect.

But Biden suffered a major setback when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador didn’t come to Los Angeles to protest that the White House banned leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the guest list, considering that violate democratic principles.

But not only Mexico has complicated Biden but also presidents Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala; Xiomara Castro from Honduras and Nayib Bukele from El Salvador, who will not come to the continental event with various topics.

An American official tried to minimize the impact of these absences, saying he hoped to reach agreements with representatives sent by the countries, albeit of lower rank.

Harris is responsible for this initiative because she was appointed by Biden as a special correspondent in the Northern Triangle to resolve this drama, but until now it has not been very successful because the flow of migrants continues.

At the summit, the vice president also announced an empowerment program for Central American women aimed at connecting 1.4 million women to the financial system and digital economy and training 500,000 women and girls in job skills.

It also announced a $ 50 million “Central American Service Corps” funded by the US Agency for International Development to provide paid community service jobs to young people.

Although it is estimated that the big debate at this Summit of the Americas will be the outrage against democracy seen in several countries of the regioninvestments also have great prominence.

In fact, a parallel summit of CEOs of companies and ministers of Industry and Production was organized, a public and private sphere where trade, digital transformation, the inclusion of SMEs and investments for the continent are promoted.

In this forum – attended by executives of the most important companies with officials from the continent – there is, for example, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines of Uruguay, Omar Paganini, who seeks to position his country as a center of innovation in Latin America.

as he knew Clarionethe minister promotes Uruguay with a range of competitive advantages in three areas: renewable energy, biotechnology and digital product development with creative technologies.

The official promotes the benefits of Uruguay in the forum where the former Argentine Minister of Production Matías Kulfas was supposed to be, displaced on Saturday and for now his replacement has not hired.

Argentina is also trying to position itself in these areas. But in Uruguay they believe that their “big differential” with our country is stability. “Energy or biotechnology are areas where investments are large and very long-term. Stability is a major attraction for investors. The institutional context offered by Uruguay is very interesting, ”the delegation told this correspondent.