The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, left Tuesday morning from Andrews Air Base in Maryland to participate in a regional meeting on irregular migration in Panama.
Blinken will meet this afternoon with the Panamanian president, Laurentino Cortizo, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erika Mouynes, to discuss, in addition to migration, the role of Panama as a regional leader in preventing democratic backsliding, promoting human rights rights and the fight against corruption, as well as the international response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The high-level ministerial meeting convened by Panama with the collaboration of the United States will be held on April 19 and 20 at the Bolívar Palace, headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, and in a hotel in the Panamanian capital.
At least 20 countries have already confirmed their attendance, expanding the participation of the first meeting to which Panama invited virtually in August 2021, during the peak of the irregular migratory movement across our borders and attended by representatives of ten governments. of the continent to talk for the first time about solutions together and with a comprehensive approach.
The support of the United States for this initiative is given with the presence of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Border Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and the agenda includes the main Panamanian approaches, such as the defense of institutions and governance to discourage emigration and the fight against corruption as a destabilizing element of democracies.
“For more than a year we have been working with the United States and other important American partners to find common ground and areas of articulation to address this phenomenon and avoid an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the region. This is an issue that we cannot resolve alone. We have the opportunity to establish new effective collaboration mechanisms for specific issues and we are starting with the comprehensive and holistic management of irregular migration,” said Panamanian Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes.
