The head of United States diplomacy, Antony Blinken, highlighted Colombia on Tuesday as a “model” in immigration policy, during a visit to an assistance center for Venezuelans in Bogotá.
(Petro supports temporary protected status for Colombians in the US).
“What we saw today in this place is really a model for many other places”the Secretary of State told the media during his visit to the facilities in the company of the mayor of the capital, Claudia López.
These centers of “inclusion” They concentrate the state offer of health and education services for migrants, in a city that welcomes half a million Venezuelans who fled the crisis in their country.
(The keys to the meeting between Blinken, US secretary, and Petro).
Colombia regularized a million of them in 2021, granting them a temporary status of ten years so that they can work and access basic guarantees.
Thanks to this “We are not going to have a lost generation (of migrants)”Blinken assessed after speaking with a Venezuelan family who arrived in the country five months ago after a three-day bus journey.
With 2.5 million Venezuelans in its territory, according to official figures from August, Colombia is the main host country for this migration. In total, some six million people have fled Venezuela since 2015, due to the collapse of the oil economy, according to the United Nations.
The new left-wing government in Colombia, headed by President Gustavo Petro, recently resumed relations with the Chavista Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro, renewing diplomatic ties and reopening the common border after three years of tensions. Blinken arrived in Bogotá on Monday to talk with Petro about the future of the war on drugs in the country that produces the most cocaine in the world.
The head of US diplomacy will travel to Santiago on Tuesday, where he will meet with the leftist president of Chile, Gabriel Boric. His tour will continue on Friday in Peru, where she will participate in the annual general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS).
AFP
