Tegucigalpa.
Honduras has been in a comprehensive and ongoing dialogue with the Joe Biden administration on the immigration issue since February, the Central American country’s secretary of state, 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,” emphasized Rosales when explaining why the US Special Envoy to Central America’s Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zúñiga, it has not included Honduras in its visit that began this Monday, and through Thursday, to Guatemala and El Salvador.
Some local analysts believe that Zúniga is not coming to Honduras because of the corruption allegations plaguing 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 Hernandez
In a statement from the Honduran Ministry of Foreign AffairsRosales indicated that he spoke with Ricardo Zúñiga last Friday.
“I am happy for El Salvador and Guatemala that they are already starting these dialogues with the United States. Honduras began on February 4,” said the senior Honduran official.
He added that he, along with other representatives of the government of Honduras, met with the United States Ambassador and Special Envoy for the Northern Triangle of Central America and Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, and with the Director of the United States. Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council, Juan González.
“At Easter we had a very fruitful conversation, which lasted about 40 minutes, with Ricardo (Zúñiga),” said Rosales.
In that conversation, he added, “we finalized the details of the working groups that we have been conducting bilaterally with the United States since February 4”.
Talks continue in Washington
According to Rosales, the talks are of the Honduran Government with Zúñiga they will continue in Washington on April 9, where, in addition to the immigration issue, they will also focus on the work that Honduras has been promoting since February 4, such as national reconstruction and security of the hemisphere.
In Washington, the heads of the secretariats of the general coordination of government, security and defense, and officials from the human rights secretariat will participate, he said.
Rosales said that addressing the migration issue is always done in a comprehensive way and includes respect for the human rights of Honduran migrants, generating development opportunities in the country and taking the necessary measures to avoid the causes that trigger migration.
Over the past four years, thousands of Hondurans have left in caravans with the idea of reaching the United States, claiming their country was lacking in employment and insecurity, and that their situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic hit. since March Honduras and the damage caused by tropical storms Eta and Iota in November.
The Honduran secretary of state also downplayed the US congressman’s questions Norma Torres to the Honduran government, which has been associated with drug trafficking and corruption, which it attributed to being only “one of the 438 Congressmen the United States has” and “lacking accurate information on many occasions” .