In a press conference from the Government headquarters after a meeting with the team of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Guatemalan president explained that this issue does not exist, it was not addressed either in title or content.

He clarified that “what we have now is a new immigration agreement that guarantees security and humanitarian conditions for the repatriation processes in the case of Guatemalans and for the deportation of other nationalities, so that they continue to their origin.”

Asked about the location of these people, Arévalo considered it difficult to define in advance, “because it is a population of which we still do not know exactly who they are, what skills they bring, what capacities they have.”

Only from that knowledge –he expanded- can one search and explore the best way to help them integrate into the labor market and explore different possibilities, not only in terms of work, but possibly in investment. Some of them will want to come, with savings, we will be able to make credits available to them, among others, described the standard-bearer of the Movimiento Semilla party.

So what we are doing is, within the framework of our Return Home plan, in the second phase, a process through which the Directorate of Migration with the Ministry of Labor interviews the returnees to identify their qualifications, he detailed.

He mentioned that his Government is in talks with different companies, businesses and with the private sector in general to identify those that are willing to absorb some of these migrants.

On whether he would be willing to receive members of the Tren de Aragua or other gangs or criminal groups, the president said that citizens of other nationalities will arrive as part of their continued repatriation.

So the ways in which this will continue, how we will cooperate, how we will do it, are issues that we will discuss at a bilateral working table, he said.

There has been no discussion about convicted criminals in the framework of these flights, he said.

Also answering some questions, Rubio went to a meeting with the private sector and then, together with Foreign Minister Carlos Ramiro Martínez, he will go to the Air Force to tour the Center for Returnees.

Both will verify the process of deportation of migrants with the arrival of a flight from the United States, prior to departure.

The Secretary of State and the North American delegation will take a flight to the Dominican Republic at the conclusion of a tour that began in Panama, and continued through El Salvador and Costa Rica.

ef/arc/znc