Will Harris’ first visit to stabilize the “Latin American backyard”
On June 6, local time, US Vice President Harris set out to visit Guatemala and Mexico. This is Harris’ first trip since taking office. Harris is the highest-level official in the Biden administration to visit Latin America so far. US Secretary of State Blincoln has visited Costa Rica before.
The United States has always regarded Latin America as its “backyard.” As the US influence in Latin America has further declined since the epidemic, Harris also intends to stabilize the “backyard” during this visit.
The immigration problem is severe
As early as March of this year, Biden assigned Harris to deal with border immigration issues. Harris immediately mobilized and coordinated with various parties, and successively held video conferences with Mexican President Lopez and Guatemala President Jamata.
The United States and Mexico have reached consensus on combating transnational snakehead organizations, protecting the safety of immigrants, and jointly formulating a humanitarian assistance plan for the three Central American countries (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). Harris also announced the provision of more than US$300 million in emergency assistance to the three countries for humanitarian relief and food shortages.
The immigration problem at the US-Mexico border is severe. On the day of his inauguration, Biden stopped the construction of the US-Mexico border wall and changed the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy. This move once again ignited the enthusiasm of the immigrant groups from Mexico and Central American countries to go north, and the number of immigrants gathered at the US-Mexico border surged.
US Customs and Border Protection data show that law enforcement officers arrested more than 178,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border of the United States in April, an increase of more than 5,000 from March, more than 10 times the number in April last year, and a 15-year high. Of the illegal immigrants intercepted, more than 60% were deported by the US in accordance with the new crown epidemic prevention and control regulations.
The outlook is not optimistic
The conflicts between the United States, Mexico and the three Central American countries may have a negative impact on the joint solution of the problem of illegal immigration. Mexico passed a law at the end of last year to restrict the activities of U.S. agents in Mexico and cancel their diplomatic immunity, which aroused dissatisfaction from the U.S. side. In addition, Mexican President Lopez has repeatedly asked the United States to stop funding Mexican anti-government organizations and accused the United States of interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.
At the beginning of May, the party led by El Salvador’s President Booker removed the judges of the Constitutional Branch of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General, which was strongly condemned by the United States. The US State Department announced a list of officials involved in corruption, including Booker’s aides and former security ministers. Honduras President Hernandez also questioned the so-called “anti-corruption strategy” of the Biden administration, believing that the US investigation has endangered regional cooperation.
Public opinion in Latin American countries believes that in resolving the problem of American and Latin American immigration, the United States should work to solve the root cause of immigration and help Latin American countries, especially Central American countries, to solve the poverty problem.
U.S. influence declines
At present, the new crown epidemic in Latin America is serious, and the number of deaths has exceeded 1 million.
US President Biden announced on the 3rd that the United States will donate 25 million doses of the new crown vaccine to other countries through the “New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan” and direct provision led by the World Health Organization. According to the plan announced by the White House, the United States will share nearly 19 million doses of vaccine through the “New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan”, of which about 6 million doses will be provided to Latin America.
Zhou Zhiwei, deputy director of the International Relations Office of the Latin American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that 6 million doses of vaccines are just a drop in the bucket for Latin America. Zhou Zhiwei said that long before the epidemic, the share of the United States in the foreign trade of Latin American countries had begun to decline. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, U.S.-Latin America trade has fallen further. From an economic point of view, the influence of the United States in Latin America is shrinking day by day, and in the medium term, the driving force for US-Latin America economic and trade cooperation is not active. Although Harris had the intention of stabilizing the “backyard” during his visit, the prospects for the U.S.-Latin America trade are not optimistic.
According to Xinhua News Agency
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