US pledges $10.6B aid for Central America, southern Mexico
By MARK STEVENSON36 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico.
The U.S aid aims to promote better security conditions and job opportunities as part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate.
The plan was announced in a joint U.S.-Mexican statement released by the State Department and read aloud by Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in the Mexican capital.
“In sum I think this is good news, very good news for Mexico,†Ebrard said.
Newly inaugurated President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waxed poetic about the plan to provide jobs so people won’t have to emigrate.
“I have a dream that I want to see become a reality ... that nobody will want to go work in the United States anymore,†Lopez Obrador said at a morning news conference before the announcement.
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