I've been in meetings here with folks in Guatemala has been in meetings with both my daughter, been in meetings with Holton o Salvador he's on the road every week, I do believe, talking about what can be done, and then every week, truly, in my opinion, reporting out on that progress so I will defer to Ricardo here in Portland did Ricardo get but I will also argue that there will be a number of deliverables coming out of the meeting with President Yamatai tomorrow. And as I noted at the top of this briefing. There were a number of discussions that Vice President Harris and President Obama had in their last bilateral meeting and announcements that were made so yes progress has delayed Sabrina, yes progress will continue to be made. If your question is specifically about it the board I will like to click on earnings so progress on orderly channels for migraine migraine. Yes, so,
yeah, that's right. And yes, there has been progress I mean apart from. So, one of the most important ways that the administration has wanted to approach this has been not just to deal with the enforcement side, which is important, and is something that us that we're working on, on our part and that the countries are doing on their own. We also wanted to make sure that across the, you know, throughout the chain of migration that people had access to improve protection because they wouldn't have to only be able to seek protection or asylum at the US border, that they would have other options, and in Mexico, we've had a high level of cooperation, both with the Mexican government and with international organizations, to try to help create some of those protection mechanisms. Apart from that, we, there will be some announcements, there are efforts that are going to be made here to extend that capacity to seek protection other than at the border, to be able to reach it in other parts of the of the world that belong that migration changes, I'll just say one last thing which is that we are you know even throughout this week we are working with other countries, it's not just the United States and Central America and Mexico. The fact is that there's, there's a mass migration taking place around the region in South America there's mass migration from Venezuela now. And so there are migrants from outside the region that are transiting Central America, so it's not just an issue for the United States, Mexico is a destination country now, countries in Central America, or destination countries now for migration internally within Central America. So there is actually a lot of interest, and a lot of discussion about how to improve labor flows within Central America and the principle American Mexico and between Mexico and between the Americas and the United States. So that's very much a part of the discussion and yes I would say that these things take time and again, you when you're talking about this number of governments. It requires the additional effort, but we are making progress on that and we've had very good cooperation from across the region.
Maryam. Following up on that, just to have specifics here, my understanding is that the Central American miners program hasn't even started accepting new applicants yet, so we're talking about, making it easier for people to apply in February, we're not going back to where we were just a few years ago, so I feel like the sense of progress but what specifically that progress is accepting new applicants right. And then on that theme.
Right. So, like the. Alright, there was first of all, there was a pretty sizable backlog still from the, we're left from that period. So, especially in this period where we are organizing ourselves at a time where we have our own issues related to logistics around the pandemic. There are challenges with getting our film up and running, but in fact, we are making progress on those. And we are again making progress and finding sort of expanding beyond the ones that existed before, but those these are part of an ongoing discussion.
I think that's okay we'll have some more specifics to share with you tomorrow, and the
production quality, just wondering a lot on the ground here. There's a formal service.
My friends today happy people with almost
overnight overstand it with conversations about about economic development, and when COVID is still such a problem. And I'm wondering if you can talk about any reaction that you had to the announcement of 6 million vaccines coming to this region, you know, we heard from people today saying that it was just not nearly enough that it was a drop in the bucket and have you guys gotten public pushback from the government here but it's just not enough. I can tell you that both. I think I've never people sitting at this table were witnesses to the phone calls that by President Harris made on Thursday and every single one of the leaders of the countries that she called were grateful for the vaccines, they work thank thankful that the United States was stepping up and tells us, there was no pushback that she received
a broader statement of vaccines. 6 million is the beginning, right, so one of the things that we saw Jeff sign and get sold out. A few days ago, make the announcement a few days ago they talked about his first tranche was 25 million and it's going to be at that it's going to be delivered before the end of June, that as the United States produce excess or has excess supply they're also going to actually share that with the world, in Latin America and the Caribbean is going to be one of the main priority areas in the distribution of those vaccines. When it comes to the vaccine diplomacy, I mean the Vice President of course is making phone calls, as in the course of her engagement with foreign leaders in the work that the President has charged doing, but it's important to mention here that when we're talking about vaccine, distribution, it is something that is being done by the public health professionals, and it's not being done for the exchange of some sort of political agreement so vaccine diplomacy is the highlight of the United States that you're working around the role as a leader in the vaccination efforts and that Latin American and Caribbean is one years apart so the 25 million is the beginning of what's going to be a much more, I think, widespread effort to help acclimate.
Can I just get one in on corruption, just one more follow up Comm, does the administration, is the administration stance
that the US, Guatemala can truly combat corruption in the region in Guatemala, without an independent commission panels similar to CC, which was dismantled in recent years, is that going to be a part of the conversations tomorrow, restoring sort of entity that was similar to si se.
So first I will say we don't want to get ahead of the conversation, and the meeting that the Vice President and President Yamato will have but, obviously, highlighting corruption across the globe is important. And, obviously, we have named it as a thing that we, that is important to do not just here but in the region. I will defer to some of my colleagues but I will I guess I will end with this and then I will turn to my colleagues as the Vice President, in his speech to the Naval Academy. At this point I feel as though it was a million years ago, but I think it was only just last week, she talks about how our world is more interconnected more interdependent more fragile, and she talked about that apply to everything from how pandemic has spread throughout the globe in month two how hackers can halt and take down entire seaboard, but that also applies migration that also applies the production part of what the Vice President has been focusing her time on is building not only rapport but engagement with CEOs and foundation leaders. She held a meeting last week. She held a meeting about two weeks ago, see, see how the meeting about two weeks ago where companies such as MasterCard and Giovanni and espresso came together to put forward commitment. Those are commitments to investment in the region that governments like Guatemala, would like to have. So, I guess I will tell you that it is a comprehensive approach here but obviously we have named it because we think it is important, and it is all about United States but
I want to lead pacifically with without an independent commission. So can you rely on one wall his own institutions to combat corruption in this country so, so here's the, here's the key.
The United States believes that CC in Guatemala, Maxine Honduras, and you know these are unique entities. These were experimental efforts to see if there could be support for anti corruption bodies within governments support from the international community, our view is that these were successful in perfect, but very successful efforts. Now, there's not just one level, and I think the most important thing to understand here is that CCWC was a un by Max he was a OAS body. In the past, we also supported bilaterally attorney generals in El Salvador, who were doing the same kinds of work. The point is not that there's not one specific model, the point is to provide support to the people within the government, or within the institution judicial institutions mainly, we have the will of a capacity to drive those cases forward in the international community provides support to actors within the system that are prepared to drive this forward. And it's not just governments right the United States has also in the case of Central America very dedicated to work, not just with the private sector as Simone mentioned that is an important part of our work, but also with civil society, and with groups that are, because the, the CC and Maxi, were both the result of activity by civil society in the countries they were not brought from the outside they were. They came at the request of population. So, it is exactly right but like I said it's broad in scope. There's no single model. We're very prepared to work with anyone who prepared to dedicate themselves to the mission. And in fact we do have those kinds of relationships, where we're supporting investigators supporting prosecutors and courts that are doing this work, even if we don't see eye to eye on every element of it with, with governments that are in place, I mean, the point is, we're going after this through different using different tools and being led by people within the countries who have the understanding what needs to be done to combat. The question
we got a quick question. It's not just DC here in Guatemala, President Giamatti has made it very clear he wants to dismantle the equivalent of the Attorney General's office that investigates government corruption, two things one Francisco Sundsvall, and he's declared all at war to stop him from investigating the very things you're talking about. Why is Kamala Harris meeting with Giamatti when he's linked to that kind of pushback on corruption and investigation. When he she's not meeting with the President, but all Salvador from Honduras. That was,
that is that is not quite what we want here.
First I will note that my president here, because she cares about the people she cares about the region, and you know the main drivers of migration are economic and climate driven, and here in Guatemala, they we believe that we can make an impact here she has had a number of very productive conversations in meetings with President Jamar today, and I'm looking forward to continuing those productive conversations and meetings with some deliverables tomorrow.
So here's the important thing when I can say, I've certainly traveled around the region and met and discussed the various issues around the region. You know, the best way to deal with these cases where you have a very complex relationship in a country like what I'm offering is to talk clearly as partners right as countries that have to get along. We have, we talked about these things but we talk mostly about hard things, and we have different perspectives, but we have been very clear, as we, you know, their various parts of the US government were very clear about their support per se. Interviewer mentioned during the week, and the, the Embassy has worked not only with us, but with a number of other bodies that have anti corruption responsibilities inside of Guatemala. So, yes, these are hard questions and this is a complex issue to deal with, but we want to do that and the Vice President is here because she wants to be able to be very clear about what our messages. And so that is what we're going to be.
All right everyone has TPM we are gonna leave it there, thank you so very much. We invite you to join us. We will be off the record at our next endeavor. And if you have any other questions, send an email to Reena bills and myself and we will get back to you if we didn't get to things again.
