TEHRAN — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will depart for a Latin American tour on Sunday to bolster relations with “like-minded and friendly states” there, reported the state-run IRNA news agency.

Accompanied by a delegation including the ministers of foreign affairs, oil and health, Raisi is scheduled to sign multiple agreements on political, trade, industrial and scientific cooperation with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

The Islamic Republic’s growing tendency toward Latin America dates back to the tenure of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013). Known for his anti-Western rhetoric, the hard-line leader relentlessly pursued partnerships with leftist Latin American states, promoting the notion of expanding Iran’s influence in “America’s backyard” to curtail the influence of its arch-foe.

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Source: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/06/irans-president-travels-nicaragua-cuba-venezuela-anti-us-blitz

The post Iran’s president travels to Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela in anti-US blitz first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

James Cleverly will underline the need for the UK to develop stronger relations with increasingly influential countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to a statement released Saturday evening.

Cleverly’s first major speech on Monday will be delivered a fortnight after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the ‘golden age’ between the UK and China was over, with relations between them now based on “robust pragmatism”.

Britain must develop relationships with increasingly influential countries which will “shape the future of the world”, the UK’s top diplomat will say.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2022/12/11/britain-seeks-out-new-friends-in-africa-asia-and-latin-america

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The post Britain seeks out new friends in Africa, Asia and Latin America first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The country also reported 20 deaths, a pace that’s remained steady and below three digits since September, according to data from the public health department. Cases in Argentina have been rising steadily since mid-December, while case counts globally hit a daily record Monday amid the spread of the highly-transmissible omicron variant.

Argentina has fully vaccinated 78 percent of its population – one of the highest inoculation rates in Latin America – and is now encouraging citizens to take a booster shot, with 10.2 percent already having received it, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker. The country has eased most restrictions and allowed foreign tourists back into the country since November 1.

President Alberto Fernández told local media earlier Tuesday that he’s not currently looking to implement additional restrictions – instead, announcing price measures to make local tourism more accessible. Health Minister Carla Vizzotti is expected to meet with provincial health authorities to assess the country’s situation.

Source: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/covid-cases-in-argentina-rise-to-highest-since-june-record.phtml

The post COVID cases in Argentina rise to highest since June record first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Although they come from different places, those embarking on these journeys face the same situation—they are leaving their homes because of a lack of opportunities, violence, or even food shortages. Occurring at a hitherto unseen speed and magnitude, this phenomenon has created an unprecedented migration crisis for Latin America and the Caribbean. What are the characteristics of each?

Migration from Venezuela involves one of the biggest and most rapid flows of vulnerable persons globally. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as of February 2019, the country’s economic and social crisis had led to the exodus of 3.4 million persons. Most have left in the past 12 months and have gone to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile, the main receiving countries. The magnitude of this crisis makes it the second biggest globally after the Syrian crisis.

The movement of persons from the Northern Triangle to the United States has been taking place for a much longer time. Between 1980 and 2015, the number of migrants from this subregion who were living in the United States increased by an annual average of 8 percent and in 2017, their total number in the United States stood at close to 3 million. Most persons leave because of the shortage of good jobs, high rates of crime and violence, and the desire to be reunited with their families. Remittances to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which amounted to almost US$20 billion in 2017, have become one of the main pillars of their economies, accounting for nearly 15 percent of their combined GDPs.

With the movement of persons come challenges and opportunities for both the source and destination areas, as I mentioned last week at the conference “Migration and Cities. The Path to Inclusive Integration,” held in Madrid.

According to a World Bank report published last November, the cost of additional education, health, water, early childhood, humanitarian, employment, and institution building services resulting from migration from Venezuela is estimated at between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent of Colombia’s GDP, a figure that will certainly increase given the growing number of persons leaving Venezuela. Despite this, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have opened their doors to migrants in a gesture of solidarity commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis. In terms of opportunities, migration can create economic growth when it is well managed.

As happens in other regions, Northern Triangle migration breaks family and community ties and disrupts the support networks in the originating countries. It can, however, contribute to poverty reduction, human capital improvement, and greater investment as a result of the transfer of remittances. El Salvador provides the most compelling evidence of this, where it is estimated that in 2014 the poverty rate would have been 12 percent higher without those remittances. Another analysis conducted in Guatemala using data from that same year demonstrated that the likelihood that a family would face food insecurity decreases by 40 percent when it receives remittances.

At the World Bank, we are supporting the region using the experience gained in other areas of the world such as the Horn of Africa or the Middle East.  We are assisting Colombia by analyzing the effects of migration and short- and medium-term response strategies. Similar studies involving Peru and Ecuador are also being carried out. In addition, we recently announced Colombia’s eligibility for funding from the Global Concessional Financing Facility, a platform that supports countries hosting large numbers of refugees. Furthermore, the refugee issue will be one of the main topics discussed at the upcoming Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to take place in less than three weeks. Going forward, we will continue our commitment by providing technical and financial assistance to migrant-receiving countries.

In the Northern Triangle, we are helping to improve access to health and education, boost the competitiveness and productivity of small producers, and enhance food security in areas impacted by drought and climate change such as the Dry Corridor, while at the same time assisting with crime and violence prevention and conducting analyses of key issues such as job creation. The aim of all these activities is to provide persons seeking a brighter future with options other than fleeing to another country.

Our efforts complement the work being done by other development organizations, governments, and civil society, although they will have to be redoubled given the projected continuation of these migration flows. The only way we will be able to tackle what is likely the greatest humanitarian crisis facing Latin America and the Caribbean today is through commitment and genuine solidarity with persons facing the dual vulnerabilities of poverty and migration.

*Axel van Trotsenburg is the World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean

Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2019/03/29/america-latina-y-el-caribe-frente-a-una-crisis-migratoria-sin-precedentes

The post Facing an Unprecedented Migration Crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Guatemalan soldiers stand guard at a police checkpoint on the Motagua River to stop the advance of Honduran migrants in Zacapa, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

Guatemalan soldiers stand guard at a police checkpoint on the Motagua River to stop the advance of Honduran migrants in Zacapa, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

A Honduran migrant woman trying to reach the U.S. cries after she was detained in the Guatemalan department of Chiquimula, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

12 more photos at the source

EL FLORIDO, Guatemala (AP) — A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. Small groups pressed on toward the Mexican border, while others accepted rides from authorities back to Honduras.

Many of the migrants were driven by an increasingly desperate situation in Honduras, where the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes in November have piled atop chronic poverty and gang violence. That combined with a hope that the new U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden would be more welcoming gave birth to the year’s first caravan.

But Tuesday, buses carrying dozens of migrants and police patrol vehicles carrying handfuls arrived sporadically through the morning at the Guatemala-Honduras border crossing of El Florido. They were passed from Guatemalan border agents to their Honduran counterparts and then boarded buses that would take them back to their hometowns.

Some 25 miles into Guatemala where hundreds of migrants had been stalled at a roadblock in Vado Hondo for several days, traffic flowed smoothly Tuesday and few migrants remained. Guatemala’s immigration authorities reported that through Monday more than 2,300 migrants had been returned to Honduras.

Carlos Hernandez, a 29-year-old shoemaker from Honduras, sat on the roadside unable to move forward and without any reason to go back.

“I lost everything, children, house, everything,” Hernández said through tears in reference to the hurricanes. “Everyone died there, I don’t have anything. Who am I going to return to?”

Eber Sosa, an 18-year-old, bricklayer, expressed the hope of many that something would change with the new U.S. administration.

“Now that the new president (Biden) is here we are waiting for the answer, all of us immigrants who are here from Honduras,” Sosa said. “We are looking to see what the new president says to move forward.”

If Guatemala’s government had indeed dissolved the year’s first caravan, it would be a relief to the incoming U.S. administration. Biden has promised immigration reform, but for now plans to leave Trump-era border policies in place fearing a surge of migrants when he takes office.

Guatemala’s government had made clear it would stop the caravan for immigration and health reasons before it had even formed in San Pedro Sula, Honduras last week. President Alejandro Giammattei said 2,000 police and soldiers would be sent to the border.

Those forces did not stop the caravan at the border, but a series of strategically places roadblocks where forces deployed tear gas and batons dissolved the mass of people.

On Tuesday, Michael Kozak, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, commended Guatemala via Twitter for “carrying out its responsibilities by responding appropriately & lawfully to the recent migrant caravan.”

Central American migrants began turning increasingly to caravans as a low-cost alternative to hiring a smuggler in 2018. Migrants gain a degree of safety in numbers and initially pushed successfully through Guatemala and Mexico. However, the U.S. government has led an effort to coordinate a more aggressive response from countries along the way to try to keep them from advancing far.

Caravans still represent only a fraction of the overall immigration flow that moves largely undetected.

In the past year, Guatemala has become a critical bulwark against the caravans, egged on by the more aggressive immigration policies of the Trump administration. Guatemalan forces effectively dissolved multiple migrant caravans last year.

In Tecun Uman, across the Suchiate river from Mexico, Rev. Fernando Cuevas said Tuesday there were not more than 70 migrants in the border town. Those who arrive do so in small groups, mostly family units, and try to cross to Mexico almost immediately.

Some go to the bridge to request asylum, while others attempt to cross the river.

Where hundreds of migrants massed last January before crossing into Mexico, this time Guatemala’s highway roadblocks appear to have stopped most. Most of those who have made it through carry the required proof of a negative coronavirus test and passports, Cuevas said.

Cuevas said both sides of the river are militarized. In Tecun Uman, Guatemala deployed large numbers of National Police who made a local community center their barracks and patrol the streets looking for migrants. Two buses from the Mexican government sit in the central plaza in front of his church waiting to drive migrants back to the Honduras border, he said.

“We are seeing a situation a little different from other years when the migrants had access and free transit,” Cuevas said. His church had prepared for the arrival of migrants like a year earlier, but now he expects few will make it. “We don’t expect them in great numbers nor organized. We don’t expect more than 100 at one time will be here.”

Mexico had sent thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents to that border last week in preparation. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to respect human rights, but also to enforce an orderly, legal migration.

One year ago, Mexican forces in riot gear rounded up hundreds of Central American migrants as they stopped to rest along a rural highway after crossing into the country.

Associated Press journalist Oliver de Ros reported this story in El Florido and AP writer AP writer Christopher Sherman reported from Mexico City.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-honduras-gangs-coronavirus-pandemic-immigration-c381b8ac9f22291188a403b7bbeb1d51

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HEALTHCARE WORKERS OF THE SAN JOSÉ HOSPITAL MOBILE UNIT TREAT VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS AT A CLOSED SCHOOL IN MAICAO, LA GUAJIRA, COLOMBIA. | BLOOMBERG/NICOLO FILIPPO ROSSO

One afternoon a couple months ago, hijackers commandeered a truck just east of Mexico City and hauled off its cargo. It wasn’t cash or jewelry but doses of ordinary flu vaccine so scarce in Mexico this year that there’s a black market for it in what many worry is an omen for Covid-19 vaccination.

In Brazil, Latin America’s other behemoth, President Jair Bolsonaro, who belittles masks, is vowing not to get a Covid vaccine, causing health officials to worry that his loyal supporters might follow suit. In Bolivia, the government has approved ingesting chlorine dioxide – bleach – against the virus, widely considered useless and dangerous.

Arguably, no region in the world has been hit as hard by the virus as Latin America. At the best of times, its health systems are wobbly. This pandemic year, with Brazil registering the world’s second-highest Covid death toll and Mexico the highest case-fatality ratio, they’re unraveling, aggravating rising inequality, crime, economic decline, and public mistrust. With eight percent of the globe’s population and 30 percent of its Covid deaths, Latin America is facing the pandemic’s next phase – mass vaccination – with alarm.

“Vaccine distribution will be complicated in developed countries but in Latin America you have to add a lack of transparency, lack of governance, and corruption,” said Sergio Litewka, director of global bioethics at the University of Miami. “Will the same people who were incapable of handling the pandemic be able to handle the vaccine?”

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There are problems that will affect all countries. Pfizer Inc. just announced that supply chain snags will halve this month’s distribution from original plans. Interpol has issued a global alert saying organized crime networks are targeting Covid-19 vaccines, both physically and online, around the globe.

But Latin America, apart from a couple countries, appears more vulnerable than other regions. The virus has set back decades of gains in democracy and equality, and nearly tripled the number facing food insecurity. Given how poorly the region has fared over the past nine months and the ultra-cold equipment needed to store and transport two of the proven vaccines, many of its health leaders expect it to lag behind, with the risk of more virus waves still ahead.

Of the three vaccine front-runners, Pfizer’s and Moderna Inc’s have shown 95 percent effectiveness but their costs and the temperature requirements might prove prohibitive. That leaves AstraZeneca Plc. The shot developed with the University of Oxford accounts for more than 40 percent of the supplies going to lower- and middle-income nations, based on deals tracked by London-based research firm Airfinity Ltd.

Health ministries across the region say they are gearing up with equipment, distribution points, and plans to mobilize the military. Some have deals with big drug companies, most are part of Covax, a World Health Organisation endeavour to help less well-off countries obtain vaccines speedily and at low prices.

But many in the know are worried.

Jorge Martín Rodríguez, professor of public health policy at Javeriana University in Bogotá, says it will probably be 2022 or 2023 before Colombia is protected, something many don’t seem to realise.

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“That hasn’t been mentioned much and it’s something to which we need to bring awareness,” Rodriguez said in a phone interview. “The risk will fall only when we reach herd immunity, ideally through vaccination.”

He estimates 45 percent of the population will acquire immunity through vaccine or infection next year, meaning restrictions will need to remain.

Mexico and Argentina signed a deal in August with Astra through billionaire Carlos Slim’s foundation to fund the production of as many as 250 million doses. Brazil is hosting phase III trials for Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Janssen.

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In theory, Brazil should fare better vaccinating its 210 million people than it did containing the disease. According to a dozen health experts consulted, its five-decade-old immunisation programme, which operates 35,000 outposts, is in sturdy shape. Even in this difficult year, the government reached 90 percent of the people it intended to with the annual flu shot.

Vice-President Hamilton Mourão said on Monday the country should vaccinate 150 million people by the end of 2021. The government, which is mostly relying on the AstraZeneca shot, is now also in talks to purchase 70 million doses from Pfizer.

But recent mishaps are causing concern. Last month, it was reported that there were almost seven million high-quality Covid tests sitting unused in a São Paulo airport, with most of them set to expire by January.

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“I had no idea that was even there,” said Carlos Lula, health secretary of the northern state of Maranhão and president of Conass, the association of the country’s state secretaries. “We had been pleading with the Health Ministry for more tests.”

Like the United States, Brazil is a federal system and the central government may or may not play a major role in healthcare. Governors implemented measures as they saw fit, asking the country’s supreme court to ensure Bolsonaro would not overrule them in his push to get people back to work. As a result, the virus behaved differently across the nation’s 27 states, a first wave that folded into a second in what some have described as a “tsunami” of infections.

Talks between the Health Ministry and states remain stalled and there are disagreements over whether to use the Chinese vaccine, CoronaVac, which São Paulo state says will begin to be deployed on January 25. The expectation is that Brazil will need more than one vaccine to cover the whole country.

Read more…

Biden can’t pick up in Latin America where Obama left off

“We’ll have to get creative – applying vaccines at home, in drive-throughs, churches, stadiums,” said Juarez Cunha, the head of the Brazilian Society of Immunisation. “We’ve done it before, and we’ll have to do it again.”

In next-door Argentina, Adolfo Rubinstein, a former health minister in former president Mauricio Macri’s administration, said he doesn’t expect mass vaccination across Argentina until the second half of 2021 partly because of the need for the low-temperature freezers.

“There aren’t so many freezers available, particularly in the most distant, rural areas,” he said. Noting that winter, along with its spike in cases, will start in the Southern Hemisphere as vaccine distribution begins, he added, “It’s very likely that, starting in April, you’ll start to see a new outbreak of cases.”

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Boycott-tainted poll win gives Maduro total control in Venezuela

AstraZeneca is among the pharma companies supplying Covax, the WHO effort, which will accelerate the production of Astra or Novavax shots for low- and middle-income nations, priced at a maximum of US$3 per dose. Sanofi and partner GlaxoSmithKline have also signed on. As the shots become available, Covax will distribute them at the same rate until all countries have enough doses to cover 20 percent of their populations.

n Mexico, the government says more flu shots will be available in the coming weeks, blaming the slow deployment on one of the largest producers, Sanofi Pasteur Inc. Sanofi says its supply chain was affected by the pandemic.

“It’s been a complete failure, there are no flu vaccines,” said Francisco Moreno, head of internal medicine at ABC Medical Center in Mexico City. “Mexico is gearing up for another disaster because we couldn’t control the Covid pandemic and we didn’t prepare the population against the flu.”

Read more…

Uruguay in mourning as ex-president Tabaré Vázquez dies aged 80

Mexico expects to receive its first doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine the third week of December and will obtain a million doses per month in the first quarter of next year, virus czar Hugo Lopez Gatell said at a press conference Tuesday. Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at the same event that it’s an important milestone for Mexico to start vaccinating in December and that every citizen will have access to a free and safe vaccine.

“Mission accomplished,” Ebrard said.

There are a couple bright spots in the region.

Uruguay has the lowest infection and mortality rates in South America thanks to one of the best healthcare systems and widespread adoption of voluntary social distancing policies. The country of 3.5 million closed its borders early and plans to keep them closed over the Christmas tourism season. President Luis Lacalle Pou said the government expects to have a vaccine available as soon as April.

And in Chile, which had some tough Covid months, Josefina Bascunan, head of academic, research, and strategic alliances at Hospital del Trabajador in Santiago, said the flu vaccine went well this year and she believes the government can put in place a strong coronavirus vaccination strategy.

More typical however, is Peru, which has suffered mightily under Covid despite stringent lockdown efforts and now looks to vaccination with concern.

Victor Zamora, a recent health minister, said Congress — which recently impeached a president — hasn’t yet debated legislation to fast-track the approval for new vaccines. He added that 70,000 nurses and a great deal of equipment need to be mobilized.

“You can’t expect this fragmented, bureaucratic, slow, politicized state to guarantee you modern, executive logistics,” he said by telephone. “I’d prefer the private sector do it even if it costs more money. Just in masks and gowns in the public sector, there is enormous loss because of theft, corruption, and mismanagement.’’

“If the private sector can get a Coca-Cola to the remotest point on this map of Peru, and I can’t get there with a paracetamol, we’re doing something wrong and they’re doing something right.”

by Andrea Navarro, Julia Leite & Simone Preissler Iglesias, Bloomberg

Source: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/devastated-by-covid-latin-america-is-now-unprepared-for-vaccine.phtml

The post Devastated by Covid, Latin America is now unprepared for vaccine first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Covid-19 causes steepest recession in Latin America and the Caribbean first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Venezuelans try to catch a ride at a Red Cross checkpoint [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

Pamplona, Colombia – Up to 50 Venezuelans sleep in what used to be 55-year-old Marta Duke’s dining room every night. Forty sleep in her former living room; more in what was once her son’s bedroom.

Scores more sleep at the neighbour’s house, and 200 more sleep outside in this chilly mountain town 75km from the Venezuelan border.

“In the new year, the quantity has exploded,” said Duke, rubbing her tired eyes in the kitchen of her house-turned-migrant shelter. “I’m worried.”

Aid workers and volunteers throughout the border zone agree that the number of Venezuelans hiking into Colombia has surged in recent weeks.

As the new arrivals continue to mount, the humanitarian crisis zone once confined to the Venezuelan border is pushing deeper into Colombia.

Marta Duke sits with women and children she shelters in her living room [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

‘No one expected this’

Late last year, places like Pamplona saw a steady trickle of Venezuelans walking through. Now, hundreds of people camp in the streets each night. The next day, they leave and more arrive.

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“I don’t think anyone expected it to be like this,” said Eric Huxley, Colombia country director for the aid group Samaritan’s Purse, who has lived near the Venezuelan border since September.

No one knows exactly how Venezuelans are arriving. Figures from Colombia’s migration authority do not add up to the spike reported by shelters throughout the zone, suggesting more people are using routes between official ports of entry and arriving undocumented.

One shelter counted about 1,200 migrants passing through in one day this month, nearly twice what they counted weekly in early December. Duke also estimated that far more than 1,000 Venezuelans pass by her home each day, with almost 300 sleeping there each night.

Venezuelans sleep in Marta Duke’s home [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

Duke, a self-described social activist, opened her doors to the migrants one year ago, when she started to notice groups building fires to cook and camp at the entrance to Pamplona. Up to 10 people used to sleep in her house back then. Now, she runs her shelter full time while her husband works as an electrical repairman.

Every day she makes a soup with potatoes, rice, herbs and sometimes, bones.

“As long as God gives me the strength and energy to do this, I will,” she said, “It’s just sad to see so many people, children, hungry.”

Families flee

No one knows exactly why the numbers of arriving migrants have jumped in the New Year. Venezuelans seldom say it has much to do with the fresh political upheaval at home. Many countries including the United States have recognized opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the nation’s interim president, casting uncertainty on the future of the government of President Nicolas Maduro, who still enjoys the support of the highest ranks of Venezuela‘s military, Turkey, Russia and China.

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The border area is set to become the next front line of the crisis, with the US reportedly planning to send food and medical supplies to Cucuta, the main Colombian-Venezuelan border crossing, where it will stay until it is allowed into the country. Maduro maintains that the US, along with other international powers, of trying to overthrow the country’s “legitimate government”.

Many migrants say they’re only marginally aware of the upheaval at home, as events are not covered by state TV broadcasters and the people remain more focused on daily survival.

Many say the spike in migration is related to the Christmas holiday. After an austere season of sentimental family time, many concluded they were ready to leave home behind.

Venezuelans walk, carrying the little belongings took from their homes when they fled [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

“We practically didn’t have a Christmas this year,” said Marena Castillo, lamenting the lack of their traditional dinner. “I couldn’t get my children anything. After that, I knew it was time to go.”

Also contributing to the spike: more migrants are bringing their families.

READ MORE

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One of them is Eliomal Flores, who is making his second trip across Colombia. The first was in May of last year. He left behind his wife and two kids in Valencia to try and earn some money and find some stability before bringing them along.

He walked and hitchhiked alone to Bogota, where he paid about three dollars a night to sleep on a crowded floor with about 20 other Venezuelans. By day he sold candies on the street. After six months he was able to save about 100,000 Colombian pesos, about $32.

On December 18, he set out for home and spent some of what he had saved on Christmas for his children. Then, in early January, the family together locked up their house and walked away, unsure they would ever return.

Flores said he would save the money for emergency situations. So far, the family has been able to eat only donated food.

“The Colombians have been very generous with us,” he said.

More than three million people have fled Venezuela, and more than a million of them have settled in Colombia, a number which Colombian officials estimate could quadruple in the year to come.

Grassroots response

All along this part of the migration route, locals have taken it upon themselves to mount a grassroots humanitarian response.

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One of them is Alonso Cardazo, 46, who farms peaches. Cardazo often drives his Toyota truck down the highway leading away from the border, stopping at each group of walking Venezuelans he found to distribute tamales, a typical Colombian food of rice and chicken cooked in a banana leaf.

He said he hands out between 30 and 40 tamales, which he buys at a shop in his local town, about three times a week. Typically it takes less than half an hour to distribute everything he has.

“I have no reason not to help them,” he said, sitting in his truck. “Just look. They need help.”

Douglas Cabeza stands in a loft he built to shelter Venezuelans [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

Others, like Duke in Pamplona, have opened their homes to migrants and refugees. Douglas Cabeza, 52, left his work as a shoe repairman three months ago to host Venezuelans full time.

When they outgrew his living room, he added a loft to his house. Now, he is building a set of shacks up the mountain from his home to shelter more people.

“Since about the third of January, a very strong flow has begun,” he said, standing in a loft surrounded by sleeping groups of women and children. “I don’t know how much longer this can last. So many people have left. How many more can remain?”

Truck drivers who pick up Venezuelans also provide some of the most crucial aid.

One hour in a car or truck can account for up to 15 hours on foot, said Victor Fernandez, coordinator for the Red Cross in Pamplona. Each day, he works at a small outpost set up for Venezuelans as they hike out of town and into the high mountains.

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“The flow of children has increased a lot,” he said, as many parents have returned to bring back their families.

Most are able to catch rides by this point, but still about 300 pass through the checkpoint each day. Fernandez said about 45 percent of them carry legal documentation, and only five percent have stamped passports, meaning they used official border crossings.

He gives an orientation to a small crowd, explaining to them where to stop their hikes to avoid nightfall catching the migrants in the highlands, where temperatures can near freezing. And he hands out maps of the route, showing 47 hours by foot to the next big city, Bucaramanga. The Ecuadorian border, where many were headed, lay about a 15-day walk ahead.

Algeni Garcia said his sandals fell apart on the four-day walk to Pamplona [Dylan Baddour/Al Jazeera]

Faced with this news, many Venezuelans opt to stay put and hope to catch a ride, but few trucks have space by this point.

Algeni Garcia, who recently left Venezuela with his wife and two children, rested in the gravel parking lot near the Red Cross checkpoint. Holding his one-year-old daughter, he studied the walking map, dismayed by what he learned in the recent orientation.

“Mom says we can’t walk,” his nine-year-old son told him.

“Go tell her we have to walk,” he said, frustration ringing in his voice. “There is no future here.”

The post As more Venezuelans flee, the crisis pushes deeper into Colombia first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the US kneels holding a Honduras flag at a border checkpoint in Tecun Uman, Guatemala [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]

Esquipulas, Guatemala – Reina Madrid breaks down in tears when she mentions her children. She left them with her sister on Thursday afternoon to join a caravan of Honduran migrants and refugeesin order to seek work.

“They were all crying. It was hard,” she tells Al Jazeera following a harrowing journey to Esquipulas, a city in southern Guatemala just over the border from Honduras.

Madrid and her four children, ages eight through 17, are from Villanueva, a city plagued by violence in northwestern Honduras. Her daughter and three sons are all in school, but they collect and sell firewood to help make ends meet.

For years, Madrid had a job as a cook at a restaurant in Villanueva. She smiles as she explains all the different kinds of typical Honduran dishes she can make.

“I love cooking,” she says. But she has not been able to find steady work all year.

Last year, Madrid’s mother became ill and it was no longer possible to both work full-time in the restaurant and take care of her mother, who died in January.

Facing electrical bills and school expenses, Madrid decided to join a large group of Hondurans leaving from the San Pedro Sula bus terminal.

She is one of thousands of Honduran migrants and refugees fleeing the Central American nation. An initial caravan left the country one week ago, crossed into Guatemala on Monday, and has since dispersed into waves, as thousands more travel north to join them.

Thousands of Hondurans made it to the Mexican border on Friday. Some have been swimming and rafting across into Mexico. Most were stopped before entering and have been taken to shelters while they await processing one group at a time, which may take days.

Honduran migrants hike in the forest after crossing the Lempa river, on the border between Honduras and Guatemala, to join a caravan trying to reach the US [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

Tightened security

Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have been fortifying their borders all week, sending reinforcements to beef up the presence of security forces. Mexico erected fencing at the Tecun Uman border crossing with Guatemala. Honduran police and riot police have been stopping people from leaving. Guatemalan police have set up checkpoints to stop people from advancing.

The additional security measures come as US President Donald Trump continues to ramp up pressure on governments in the region to halt the caravan before it hits the southern US border, which Trump has threatened to shut down. He has also threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and other high-level Honduran officials met on Saturday with their Guatemalan counterparts, including President Jimmy Morales, to address the caravan and coordinate a response. They also reached out to Mexico, they said on Saturday, claiming the caravan was politically motivated. At an air force base in Guatemala, the two presidents presented their “Safe Return” plan to provide transportation home for caravan participants who wish to return.

The Honduran government announced on Saturday that it was shutting down its immigration checkpoint at the Agua Caliente border crossing until further notice, adding that Guatemala’s was already closed “due to the crisis unleashed by sectors outside of national interests”, according to a National Immigration Institute statement.

‘Hondurans want to leave and not go back’

People want to flee Honduras and not go back, says Madrid. She admits she considered the possibility of going back home when she arrived tired and hungry in Esquipulas, with wet clothes and cheap pink sneakers. A call with her son lifted her spirits, she says.

Madrid is part of one of several waves of hundreds of people following behind the initial caravan. When she left earlier, the bus terminal was packed with hundreds of people from different parts of Honduras setting out to flee the country for a variety of reasons, but mainly unemployment and violence.

Madrid and a crowd set out on foot from the terminal at 11pm. Between walking and a free bus ride offered along the way, Madrid arrived at the Agua Caliente border crossing with Guatemala eight hours later.

Honduran police were blocking the highway, preventing people from leaving the country, she says. Those who had lucked into bus rides right from San Pedro Sula had been there all night, and Madrid and others streamed in throughout the morning.

Madrid had heard that police told the early arrivals they would be allowed to cross at 8am, but the hours passed and national police officers and members of the Cobra police special forces continued to block the route. Most people had not slept all night or eaten, and many became restless and impatient.

“We broke through the border,” Madrid says.

Police used batons and rocks were thrown back and forth, says Madrid. Four police officers and five migrants and refugees were wounded and treated by paramedics, according to Honduran authorities.

Madrid and others say they used tear gas, but according to officials, it was a different aerosol chemical agent. Either way, it stings a lot, Madrid says.

The crowd made it through and lined up to present their documentation to Guatemalan immigration agents for processing at the country’s border checkpoint, a few kilometres past the Honduran one.

It was after dark by the time everyone made it into Guatemala, and people trickled into Esquipulas all evening, making their way to the local Casa del Migrante Jose shelter. The shelter is affiliated with the Catholic Church, but is run by volunteers of various religious denominations.

A caravan in waves

The Honduran migrants and refugees arriving at the shelter Friday night joined others from all around the country who had crossed over the previous two days.

Aside from the large groups of hundreds of Hondurans fleeing together, small groups, families and individuals have been making their way across on their own. Unable to get past the Honduran police blocking the way out of the country, dozens of small groups of people have taken to hiking around checkpoints, police lines, and the border.

Several refugees at the Esquipulas shelter told Al Jazeera they saw adults and children fall and injure themselves while trekking around checkpoints. Groups lost track of each other, and not everyone made it to Esquipulas.

Honduran migrants react after crossing the border between Honduras and Guatemala, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

At the shelter, Honduran migrants and refugees who have been there since Thursday told Al Jazeera that small groups have set out towards Guatemala City but many have not made it far. Whether people are travelling on foot or by bus, Guatemalan police have stopped many from proceeding.

They are transported back down to the Honduran border crossing, multiple refugees, as well as local Esquipulas residents and taxi drivers confirmed to Al Jazeera.

“They’re being stopped,” says Selvin Santos, who arrived in Esquipulas earlier this week from Choluteca in southern Honduras.

‘There is nothing’

Santos could have attempted to leave on Friday, but he does not know the way and thinks there is more safety in numbers, he tells Al Jazeera at the Esquipulas shelter, where volunteers were busy all day preparing food and cleaning the space.

Many in the caravan prefer to wait until their numbers grow larger, but approximately 70 Hondurans decided to set out on foot from Esquipulas on Saturday and attempt to make it further along the road towards Guatemala City.

The group only made it a kilometre or so out of the city before Guatemala police special forces stopped them from proceeding. They were told to stay put on the side of the highway until police obtained further instructions on whether or not to allow them to continue.

More special forces agents gradually began arriving, however, and a police bus showed up. The group of Hondurans waited another 15 minutes or so before deciding they did not want to risk being held and transported back to the Agua Caliente border. They walked back to the shelter in Esquipulas.

Dozens of Hondurans rest at the side of the highway north of Esquipulas while waiting for directions from Guatemalan police special forces halting their advance [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

It is not by choice that so many Hondurans are abandoning their country, Santos says.

“It is need. There are no job opportunities,” he tells Al Jazeera, adding that in Honduras, “we face hunger. There is nothing.”

Santos and other Hondurans stuck for now in Esquipulas feel alone, he says. There are few journalists and no human rights personnel visiting or accompanying them at this point. Santos and others tell Al Jazeera they know the Mexican border is now the focus, but they desperately want a media and human rights presence down by Guatemala’s southern border.

Hundreds of Hondurans continue to seek a path forward to make it to Mexico or all the way into the US, but Madrid is planning to stay in Esquipulas to seek work. Several others plan to do the same in Guatemala City instead of forging on.

Two buses were set to leave Madrid’s hometown of Villanueva for the border Saturday morning, and police at the border told her they were also expecting two buses from Olancho, in eastern Honduras.

While she was talking to a Honduran police officer at the border, Madrid says, she was next to a truck filled with riot gear.

“All of Honduras wants to come here,” Madrid says.

An old meme has been circulating in light of the current situation in Honduras: “May the last one to leave turn off the light.”

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/181021033220712.html

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In the global competition between world powers, the battle in Latin America exemplifies how power is shifting toward Asia. China has been steadily strengthening political and economic ties with Latin America, while the United States has missed numerous opportunities to strengthen ties with its southern neighbors. From President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia, to President Donald Trump’s “America First” stance and hard-edge approach to immigration, many in an increasingly confident and economically attractive Latin America believe the United States has taken them for granted.

By contrast, Chinese companies have invested over $100 billion in Latin America in a wide range of industries, from oil and metals extraction to information technology, electricity, and infrastructure. And they have set a goal for investment capital to reach $250 billion by 2025. Moreover, China is now the number one or number two trading partner of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, also recently invited Latin America to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, with promises of large loans to cover major infrastructure projects.

Increasingly, Latin America countries are aligning themselves rhetorically with China. Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz recently praised China for its “constructive role” in the region, and for rejecting protectionism. This was a veiled reference to Trump’s “America First” policy. In reality, China remains more protectionist than the United States, although you wouldn’t know it from listening to each country’s leaders. While President Xi Jinping of China hails free trade, the country practices neomercantilism, a trade strategy based on import substitution and industrial exports, exemplified by its Made in China 2025 policy, which aims to dominate high tech industries and significantly increase domestic market share of components for electronics.

U.S. officials are now speaking their minds about China’s growing economic links with Latin America. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson noted in his speech at the University of Texas on February 1, “China… offers the appearance of an attractive path to development… but, this often involves trading short-term gains for long-term dependency.” This is not always true, but has been the case for certain countries. For example, Ecuador currently must ship more than 90 percent of its oil to Asia, as it owes more than 500 million barrels of crude oil to China, depriving the country of an important source of revenue.

Another U.S. official, Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass, also partially blamed China for Venezuela’s woes. “Most of the blame for Venezuela’s economic collapse and humanitarian disaster falls squarely on Venezuela’s rulers, but China has been by far Venezuela’s largest lender, supporting poor governance,” Malpass said. “The result will raise the ultimate cost to the international community once Venezuela returns to democracy and economic reforms.” China was a steadfast lender to Venezuela in deals that have topped $60 billion, giving a lifeline to a sinking ship.

Malpass also sent a letter to the president of the Inter-America Development Bank (IDB), calling out the IDB for having its annual meeting in Beijing next year rather than in Latin America. The United States is the biggest shareholder at the IDB and China’s stake is less than 0.01 percent.

This shift in rhetoric from the current U.S. administration is rooted in an insecurity that the United States may have opened a door that it will now be unable to close. Trump’s more aggressive policies on immigration and his upsetting of the U.S. rapprochement with Cuba have set the United States back in the region. A recent Gallup poll shows approval of the U.S. president in Latin America has fallen to just 16 percent.

But those that blame only Trump fail to see that shifts in global power are longer term structural trends that are larger than any one U.S. president. China’s economic power has been increasing for decades, and its military has been growing steadily since the 1990s. Conversely, the United States has seen relatively low economic growth since the global financial crisis and has cut defense budgets.

The United States should focus more attention on the battles for soft power and influence around the globe. In Latin America, the United States should start by focusing on strengthening relations with its direct southern neighbor. The Mexico of today is a dynamic hub of innovation and economic diversity that is taking on difficult reform issues. And recent conflict in the U.S.-Mexico relationship, like threatening to build a wall along their shared border or pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have pushed Mexico to cozy up with China.  Mexico has recently seen a rash of investment from China, from e-commerce to auto manufacturing, and Mexico has openly spoken about increasing trade with China.

Similarly, the United States must focus on strengthening relations with its allies Brazil and Argentina. China has recently surpassed the United States as Brazil’s largest trading partner, and now Brazil is the largest Latin American supplier of oil and soybeans to China. Rather than focusing on trade in commodities, U.S. imports from Brazil focus more on manufactured goods and services, good for the long-term development of the country.

Former commander of the U.S. Southern Command James Stavridis recently cautioned that the United States must approach the region with more humility. Latin America is not “America’s backyard,” but rather an attractive economic partner and important security ally. Tillerson would have done well to exclude from his speech declarations that the Monroe Doctrine, a document that painted Latin America as a U.S. sphere of influence not to be touched by outside powers, is “as relevant today as it was the day it was written” in 1823. It’s time for the United States to construct a new, modern relationship with its regional neighbors. This will be a more fruitful strategy to respond to China’s growing influence south of the U.S. border.

Sean Miner is an associate director and fellow, China – Latin America Initiative, at the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center of the Atlantic Council.

Source: https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/us-speaks-its-mind-on-chinas-strengthening-relationship-with-latin-america/

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