by the El Reportero’s wire services
Nicolás Maduro(Note from the Editor): At press time, the threat of an attack on the part of US would have been dilated by a negotiation between Russia, Syria and the U.S. , in which Syria would divest its arsenal of chemical weapons onto international monitors of weapons of mass destruction).
Mooted foreign military intervention in Syria has triggered varied reactions across Latin America with Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro leading the chorus of condemnation from the radical left-wing bloc Alba.
The rest of the region reacted in far more measured tones, which explained why last week’s Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit in Suriname failed to mention Syria in its Declaration of Paramaribo.
It was noteworthy that while Alba members vociferously accused the US of potential violation of ternational law, should it carry out a threatened military strike on Syria, they have stayed completely mute about Cuba’s actual violation of international law by covertly transporting matériel through the Panama Canal to North Korea, even in the wake of the publication of a report last week displaying the extent of Cuban subterfuge. (Reported by Latin News).
Costa Rica hosts CELAC meetin g on migration
The second meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on Migration began in this capital today, with interesting proposals that opened the discussion among delegations.
Among the initiatives is the creation of regional consulates in certain parts of the world that deal with the problems of emigrants from CELAC countries, as well as the establishment of mobile consulates to service emigres in distant places.
In addition, the organization of regional consular courses to share knowledge and foster greater integration in this specific activity was proposed, as well as emphasizing the consuls’ humanitarian work.
This annual meeting was preceded by another on August 20 and 21, 2012 in Comayagua, co-chaired by the government of Honduras and Chile, which then held the CELAC pro tempore presidency.
Participants at that event denounced the discriminatory and selective policy applied by wealthy countries against immigrants from poorer nations, who are used as labor in benefit of the developed economies. This was the driving force behind the CELAC agreement to hold these annual meetings: to discuss issues such as immigrants’ human rights, their reintegration into society when they are returned as deportees, and other aspects related to migration.
This meeting is meant to coordinate a common position by the CELAC with a view to the meeting that the United Nations will hold in October on Migration and Development and the high-level dialogue in November between the European Union and Latin America, organizers said. (By Rolando de la Ribera, special envoy to CELAC).
U.S. escalates deportations of Guatemalan immigrants
More than 33,783 Guatemalans were deported from the United States during the first eight months of 2013, 20.65 percent higher than the number reported in the same period of the previous year, says the Director General of Migration.
Of the amount recorded from January to August this year, 31,051 were men, 2,475 were women, and 257 were children under 18 years of age, noted the official report.
The Government of Guatemala estimates that if the upward trend continues, Washington could drive out nearly 48,000 immigrants from this Central American country by the end of the year.
U.S. authorities repatriated 40,647 Guatemalans in 2012, 10,000 more than the number expelled in 2011.
Despite the repatriations, it is expected that remittances of Guatemalan migrants living in the US will reach 5.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Nearly 2 million Guatemalan citizens live in the United States, with 1,600,000 thousand lacking legal papers, according to statistics from the National Coordinator of Guatemalan Immigrants.
