AMERICA/GUATEMALA - Migration: Cardinal Ramazzini calls for common strategies

Tuesday, 9 February 2021 emigration violence local churches laws

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Guatemala City (Agenzia Fides) - After Honduras asked neighboring Guatemala to investigate the violence against migrants (see Fides 21/1/2021), the international community opened its eyes to this large group of migrants continuing their march to the United States.
The Bishop of the diocese of Huehuetenango, Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini, spoke in an interview with ‘Prensa Libre’ newspaper in which he talks about emigration and dwells on what he considers the main cause, the widespread poverty, which he defined as "a form of structural violence".
"Everyone has the right to migrate, especially in situations where they need to escape persecution and life-threatening threats such as poverty, which is an attack on life, because many people cannot lead decent lives in the poverty in which they live", says the Cardinal.
Regarding the violence suffered by the group of migrants, the Cardinal continues: "Undoubtedly the laws of each country must be respected, we must recognize their sovereignty, but at the same time we must recognize the right to migrate. How to combine the two principles is complicated, which is why we have asked governments to adopt policies that favor the presence of migrants because they are not all criminals or thieves".
Cardinal Ramazzini, faced with the reality of Guatemala, comments: "This country has not implemented policies to promote more employment for the people. The farmers have been abandoned and the tax system, which was supposed to generate resources for the needs of the rest of the Guatemalans, did not work. For this reason the Bishops' Conference of Central America ask the Presidents to address this issue in a global way and find a common strategy. This problem cannot be solved with strict suppression or more border control. Joint proposals and measures should come from the Central American Integration System (SICA) that needs to address the lack of structural solutions that cause poverty and violence".
At the end of the interview, the Cardinal said: "We are all responsible at different levels: families, politicians, legislators who do not advocate laws that promote development, business people who, in general, only have their own interests, prosecute trade unions and social organizations that do not advocate development. Here we are all responsible". (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 9/2/2021)