The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who is immersed in a tour of Latin American countries, announced on Thursday an aid of 240 million dollars, by his country, to support humanitarian assistance efforts aimed at solving the needs of migrants and refugees in the hemisphere.
“The support will help host communities better integrate immigrant populations, including by funding programs that help immigrants apply for official status,” the secretary said, during a ministerial meeting on migration., organized within the framework of 52nd Assembly of the Organization of American States OASin Lima.
It added that it “will provide international law enforcement and border security assistance to help partner governments find criminals and human traffickers who prey on vulnerable people.”
Furthermore, Blinken stated that, according to the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, the United States is launching “a collective implementation process” that contributes to achieving the commitments related to the phenomenon of migration and urged nations to work together, taking advantage of the experience of other countries in receiving migrants and refugees.
Likewise, he highlighted the work of countries such as Colombia, where Venezuelan migrants are sought to be regulated, through the Temporary Protection Status, and Ecuador, where a registration process was opened in September for Venezuelan migrants to request legal protection.
In this sense, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Office of Population, Refugees and Migration, Marta Youth, stressed in a subsequent press conference that -regardless of the recipient country- US humanitarian assistance “is never conditional”.
“Humanitarian aid is to respond to humanitarian needs. This is more a support to the host countries, to the communities, so that they can respond to the needs and also to regularize the people who are arriving”, assured Youth, who also stressed that Washington has provided humanitarian support to 17 countries of the region that have received Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
The framework of the IX Summit of the Americas
Earlier, the secretary presided over the Ministerial Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG), where he recalled the commitments adopted in Los Angeles, in the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas and the achievements of your country related to the strengthening of public health systems, the first regional agenda for digital transformation, the acceleration of the transition towards clean energy through the reduction of emissions and the expansion of renewable energies, investment on climate resilience and support for the Inter-American Plan of Action on Democratic Governance, which is about strengthening governance and democracy.
Likewise, Blinken announced his country’s organization of the first Summit of Cities of the Americas in Denver next April.
“We will bring together people from across the hemisphere – municipal and community leaders, business and academics, and indigenous and underrepresented groups – and find ways to leverage our summit commitments at the local level to advance the issues that matter most in our communities. Blinken stated.
The Secretary also held a meeting, on Thursday morning, with the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, and will be present to discuss the crises in Venezuela and Haiti. He is expected to meet in the afternoon with the Peruvian president. Pedro Castillo, and Foreign Minister César Landa.
President Castillo receives Blinken
Late Thursday afternoon, President Pedro Castillo, together with his Foreign Minister César Landa, received Secretary Blinken and the US entourage accompanying him at the Government Palace.
Both dignitaries were accompanied by their respective delegations for a work meeting, reported the official media TV Peru News.
On the sidelines of the OAS assembly, Secretary Blinken met with human rights activists and members of civil society from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
In the prelude to the meeting, the senior US diplomat said: “I am very eager to hear from them to learn how we can do more, how we can do better by supporting their efforts and supporting the aspirations of people to live free in order to satisfy their own aspirations”.
The attendees, five women, stand out for their work in defense of fundamental rights from the countries and communities where they reside.
Clara Ramírez is a Venezuelan lawyer, currently serving as the interim director of Fundaredes, a “Venezuelan NGO that promotes and defends human rights.”
Since Javier Tarazona’s imprisonment, Ramírez has held the position of the organization and has assumed the legal representation of detainees, as well as presenting cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
For Nicaragua, Kenia González stands out for her defense of political prisoners in her country and, more closely, that of her brother, the student leader Lesther Alemán, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the government of Daniel Ortega. González is denied access to his country.
Activist Wendy Flores, from the organization Nicaragua Nunca Más, resides in Costa Rica and from there carries out her work for the freedom of those imprisoned for political reasons.
Cubans Miriam Cardet and Darcy Borrero carry out different tasks, but focused from Miami on the defense of freedoms in their country, Cuba. The first is the sister of the doctor Eduardo Cardet, who was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly “defamation” of Cuban official leaders, and Borrero works as a journalist in the Diario de las Américas and is a member of the Justice 11J movement.
Blinken culminates in Lima a tour of Latin America which started on Monday and took him to countries like Colombia Y Chiliwhere, among other events, he met with the heads of state of these countries.
[Con la colaboración de Salomé Vargas, periodista de VOA, desde Washington DC]
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