The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – President Barack Obama has asked Congress to triple its economic aid to Central America with a contribution in the amount of one billion dollars. The authorization will take place on Monday, February 2.
A further call to action came in the form of an opinion column authored by US Vice President Joe Biden and published in The New York Times.
“On Monday, President Obama asked Congress for $1 billion to help Central American leaders make the difficult reforms and investments needed to address the interconnected challenges of security, governance and economic difficulties,” Biden said.
The initiative, dubbed ‘Prosperity Partnership Plan for the North Triangle’, attempts to create better economic and security conditions in the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to reduce mass emigration after the crisis triggered by the arrest of more than 68,000 unaccompanied children in the United States, mostly from those countries in the last 12 months.
US assistance will focus on three areas: community policing, effective tax collection and advice to create the necessary legal certainty for these three countries to attract foreign investment while fighting corruption.
“The cost of investing now in a secure and prosperous Central America is modest compared with the costs of letting violence and poverty fester,” reads the article that appeals to members of the US Congress to work jointly with the Executive Branch of the country.
“Together we can help Central America become an embodiment of the Western Hemisphere’s remarkable rise – not an exception to it,” concludes Biden.
The Prosperity Partnership Plan for the North Triangle, proposed by the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in November, is based on four pillars (entrepreneurship and job creation, security, technical training and institutional strengthening), where the governments will focus their resources on the poorest of the population, where the flow of migrants is highest. (Amelia Rueda)
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose, Costa Rica
