Guatemala President: US Money Will Curb Immigration

(Dreamstime)

While border security and immigration remain top concerns for U.S. voters this year, the Biden administration’s meeting with newly sworn-in Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo this week signaled that the rest of the world is concerned, too.

Arévalo is looking to stem the tide of immigration to the U.S. by encouraging American investment in the Central American nation.

“Cooperation is not sending money,” he told CBS News. “Cooperation can be by creating conditions in which we can invite you to invest in Guatemala and establish factories, work that can begin to produce and create jobs. That’s fundamentally what we are most interested in.”

The official White House statement from the meeting said Harris and Arévalo “discussed good governance, effective migration management, the importance of upholding democracy, and other issues of mutual interest.”

“We have to work to allow people, what we call, ‘The right to stay.’ People have a right to remain in their places. People need to find opportunities,” Arévalo added.

During their press conference, Harris announced that the U.S. will provide $170 million in economic development and security assistance for Guatemala, in addition to $1 billion worth of new private investment.

Arévalo also noted that he will work with whomever is in the White House, and that while American investment is important, if institutional corruption remains in Guatemala, the country will not move forward.

“We believe that corruption is the most urgent problem,” Arévalo told CBS News. “But the most important problem is development. But if we do not fight corruption, we are not going to be able to get the development that we need so that people can flourish and stay.”