Mexico City, July 2, (dpa/GNA) – The US government has banned 55 current and former senior officials in Central America from entering the country, calling them corrupt or undemocratic actors.
The list, issued by the US State Department on Thursday, includes officials from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Honduran former president Porfirio Lobo, Guatemala’s former president Alvaro Colom and El Salvador’s labour minister are all on the list, alongside many other current and former members of parliament and former ministers from the three countries.
All of them engaged either in actions that undermine democratic processes or institutions, significant corruption, or the obstruction of investigations into corruption, according to a report that is being submitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Committee on the Judiciary, and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The three countries account for a large percentage of the people trying to enter the US through Mexico without authorization.
In May, the US Border Patrol said it had apprehended more than 180,000 migrants who had illegally crossed the southern border, the most in more than 20 years.
US President Joe Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with curbing illegal migration by addressing the root causes of flight in Central America.
On her first trip abroad in office in early June, she called on Guatemala to tackle corruption.
GNA