The Government of Mexico will allocate 6,000,000 dollars to the Sembrando Vida program in Cuba, reported this Thursday Laura Elena Carrillo Cubillas, executive director of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid).
the official detailed before the Senate of that countrywhich is already being implemented in El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize, will benefit “5,000 Cubans with an average of 10 cultivable hectares” on the island, to whom it is planned to grant each one “150 dollars a month for eight months.”
In El Salvador, explained a source consulted by 14ymedio, this aid is given “directly, 250 dollars a month to the beneficiaries of Sembrando Vida and 180 dollars to each of the 10,000 young people affiliated with the Youth Building the Future program”, another of the projects that President Andrés Manuel López also applies Workshop in Mexico. On the island it will be different, “the money will be delivered through cooperatives and that work will be determined by the Cuban government.”
The agreement was finalized last May during the visit of the Mexican president to Cuba. In addition to these scholarships, it was agreed hiring of 500 doctors and the acquisition of Cuban vaccines against covid-19.
The program has been questioned for its lack of transparency and the opacity of money management, and is seen by opposition parties as a form of political patronage
Sembrando Vida was implemented by the López Obrador Administration and, according to what it proclaims, is “the largest job creation program in the history of Mexico,” with a budget this year of 445,520,000,000 pesos.
Started as a local program, the Mexican Government included it in its Development Plan for Migration. The proposal focuses on containing the irregular exodus of people through the implementation of social programs in the Northern Triangle of Central America made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, to which Cuba, Honduras and Belize have been added.
The program has been criticized for its lack of transparency and the opacity of money management, and is seen by opposition parties as a form of political patronage. According to the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF), there have been anomalies in them.
In the review of the 2020 Public Accountfor example, there are 890 million pesos reported as delivery, without detailing its destination, while in 2019 its “design deficiencies” and the lack of clarity in the delivery of 1,832 million pesos were questioned.
Laura Elena Carrillo assured the senators that at the end of the program in Cuba, “she will deliver the results and the methodology on the scope and effectiveness they had.”
The most recent information on the progress of Sembrando Vida in El Salvador was offered by the Mexican president during his visit in May. He affirmed that 55% of the 20,000 beneficiaries gave up leaving the country thanks to the program, for which he announced another 30,000,000 dollars more for its continuity.
Journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio wrote in his column The (probable) mockery of AMLO published on May 24 in Central axisthat three days after López Obrador’s announcement, the Bukele government announced the purchase of bitcoin, declared the national currency by his government, with an investment of 15,000,000 dollars.
It is still not known what there is of agricultural supplies and fertilizers to producers, for the cultivation of 50,000 hectares of basic grains and vegetables and with which it would be sought to generate 20,000 jobs. Nor has the Salvadoran government revealed data on which cities the program is running in, nor has there been public supervision of the places where it is supposed to be planted.
In June 2019 Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced what he called “a contribution” of 30,000,000 dollars to the Government of Nayib Bukele for the implementation of Sembrando Vida. The project that was intended to stop migration began until 2020 due to the pandemic, according to the Salvadoran diplomat, Alexandra Hill.
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