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Pompeo Begins Trip to Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, El Salvador

  • Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 8, 2019.

    Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 8, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 19 July 2019
Opinion

The U.S. Secretary of State will seek to "reinforce" support for sanctions against the Latin American nations of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

TU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began on Friday a three-day tour across Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador, which is aimed at "strengthening alliances in the Western Hemisphere on regional and global challenges."

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During his trip, Pompeo will seek to "reinforce" support for the U.S. policies against Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, an objective which an official diplomatic statement presents as "support for their struggle for democracy and freedom."

In Buenos Aires, Pompeo will participate in the Second Ministerial Conference against Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. During his stay in this city, he will meet with Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, Chile's Foreign Affairs Minister Teodoro Ribera and the Bahamian Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield.

In Ecuador,  the U.S.State Secretary will meet with President Lenin Moreno, although full details of his agenda have not been disclosed yet.

In Mexico, Pompeo will meet Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and discuss issues related to the Central American migration flows and the trade agreement between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

In El Salvador, the State secretary will meet President Nayib Bukele with whom he will address the reduction of migration to the U.S. Southern border.

This official tour happens amid increased tensions due to the migratory flows coming from Central America. Currently, the U.S. legislation allows migrants arriving at the border to apply for asylum regardless of their travel route.

To halt the number of applications, President Donald Trump administration announced on Monday that it will prevent the granting of asylum to immigrants who do not request it before in a "safe third country".

The effective implementation of this proposal, however, seems problematic since Canada is the only territory in the region formally recognized as a safe third country so far. Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales said Thursday that he has rejected the proposal to become a safe third country.

During his professional career, Pompeo has stood out for embracing the most "harsh" causes raised by the Republican Party. In addition to having held high positions in companies related to oil activity such as Sentry International, Pompeo was a congressman from 2011 to 2017, a period in which he led the "Tea Party", a republican ultraconservative group.

Subsequently, from 2017 to 2018, he was appointed by President Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).​​​​​​​

Since the U.S. Supreme Court swore Pompeo in as State Secretary on April 2018, he has been actively defending the most questioned expressions of the U.S. foreign policy, among which are the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba, the deepening of migration controls and the economic sanctions against Iran.​​​​​​​

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