Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Guatemala President Bernardo Arevalo are meeting near their shared border. Their main agendas include migration, security, and development.

The two Latin American leaders met in the Mexican border city of Tapachula as migrants traverse both countries in order to make it to the US-Mexico border and try their luck at either being granted asylum or entering the US illegally and finding a better life there.

"We want a border that unites, a border that unites our people, the Mexican people and the Guatemalan people, a border that allows us to develop and grow together, with reciprocal benefit, trust, enthusiasm and collaboration," said Arevalo in a statement.

Tapachula was also where his father, Juan Jose Arevalo, a former Guatemalan president, met with then-Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho back in 1946. The two countries are meeting amid US pressure to increase the control of their shared border and help stem the flow of migrants to the US, according to The Independent.

Aside from migration, the two countries also discussed security as two major Mexican drug cartels are vying for control of the border area with Guatemala. Guatemala has been concerned about this development as the country fears the violence might spill over the border. AMLO stated that he and Arevalo will be discussing how best to tackle the situation.

Biden Administration Helping Mexico and Guatemala in Economic Development

Meanwhile, the destination of all these migrants arriving in Mexico and Guatemala is also trying to give economic opportunities for citizens of these countries so they would not migrate to the US, particularly Guatemala.

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Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Barcena stated that the three North American countries are in agreement that they will direct more resources to the Mexico-Guatemala border. This would ensure that development programs, commerce, and job creation would be accelerated and ease the social hardships that would make people want to migrate.

However, Barcena acknowledged that the shared Mexico-Guatemala-Belize border, an important migration route, would be challenging to police as it is long, mountainous, and remote. It is also an area where both the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are warring for supremacy.

Mexico Doing More to Stop Border Migration Than Previous Years

Meanwhile, it seems that the Biden administration's pressure campaign on Mexico to act on immigration is working, as the US's southern neighbor is s stopping nearly three times as many migrants who have crossed its southern border as it was a year ago, according to NBC News.

This increased cooperation with Mexico has also helped slow migration down. The same can be said in Guatemala, as Bernardo Arevalo has also been stricter with migrants than his predecessors.

This year, more migrants have been stopped in Mexico rather than being captured by US border patrol. Over 280,000 migrants were interdicted in Mexico this year, and this is far more that the 189,000 captured in the US, which means the Mexican government is indeed slowing the migrants down. However, these numbers are not well known to the public as the Mexican government does not share migrant interdiction numbers like the US.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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