(film reel clattering) - Thank you for joining us.

I'm Sandy Close, EMS director and your moderator for today.

Our focus is Latin America, which has long been on the periphery of U.S. foreign policy thinking almost as if we think we can seal ourselves off from everything south of the border by building a wall, a mental wall.

But the region is experiencing major transformations with repercussions for the entire continent, from new migration patterns and climate change to a growing wealth gap, a leftward leaning political shift, and what The Guardian newspaper called the "normalization" of cartels.

Meanwhile, China, Iran, and other players are deepening their strategic ties to the region.

Our speakers will assess what the U.S. stakes are in a changing Latin America.

Our speakers include Ariel Ruiz Soto, policy analyst with Migration Policy Institute, and Manuel Ortiz Escámez, a photojournalist, colleague of ours with Ethnic Media Services and publisher of Peninsula 360.

So, let's start and I'm honored to bring a speaker from one of our most valuable collaborators, Migration Policy Institute, Ariel Ruiz Soto, who will provide an overview of migration trends in Latin America and emerging news on migration from the summit.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thank you, Sandy, and thank you everybody for doing the opportunity to speak with you all today.

Again, my name is Ariel Ruiz, a policy analyst with Migration Policy Institute based in Washington, DC.

In my remarks in the next eight minutes or so, I want to touch on the different groups of flows and trends that we're seeing from migration in Latin America.

And.

it's important for us to delineate which ones these are so that we can try to understand different dynamics that also come with this and, of course, then the policy outcomes that come with that.

So first, we have migrants that are transiting to, through central parts of Central America to try to come to the United States.

That's one group.

We also have returnees who are being repatriated from the United States and Mexico, in some cases, to other parts of the region, and Haiti, Cuba and others.

We also have internal displacement and we have as well immigrants who are moving to countries through legal means to either for job, for opportunity, for family, or for other reasons that come in to play here.

So, the interesting dynamic that I want to start with is to try to present how this all come in to play in this current moment that I think is very timely because of the Summit of the Americas.

We have-- and I'll focus on mainly this year 2022.

But, also I'm happy to talk on questions about 2020.

What we've seen is that the composition and the flow again is changing in the region.

We began to see, or we have seen for the last several years that Central American migrants have been a significant part of the population that's moving through the region and coming to the United States and Mexico, or through Mexico and into the United States.

There's also a big important flow of migrants from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.

And there's also an internal flow and something in South America that's actually also happening, including some Haitian migrants that have been somewhat settled or temporary settled in Chile, in Brazil, in Ecuador and other places.

And now, are beginning to transit through the country.

At the same time, we have Cubans and Venezuelans that have been long part of this migration in Latin America.

And, I think it's important for us to think about that.

And so, let me start with some figures here just to give a perspective, and then I'll hone in on some of the key opportunities we have.

For fiscal year-- fiscal year 2022, that is October 2021 through April 2022.

And, these are all U.S. administration figures.

There were 1.3 million encounters by U.S. immigration authorities of migrants.

I want to make sure that "encounters" here doesn't mean individual people.

It often means events.

And so, in this case, somebody could have potentially been detained or encountered multiple times.

But, it's 1.3 million.

Out of that 1.3 million, 61% of those encounters are for migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, meaning that the remaining 39% are from other parts of the world.

And, that is something that's increasingly unique in our region.

And when we're seeing, for example, migrants not only for from Cuba, from South America, but also from Asia as well, becoming a bigger piece of how we understand these flows.

And, one of the things that we've studied at MPI is that our systems in the region are not equipped to handle the diversity in the flows that we're seeing.

In Mexico, just to give you a perspective, I told you there was 1.3 million encounters, Mexico measures apprehensions.

And Mexico, in the same period, October to April, Mexico apprehended 198,000 migrants roughly of the same equivalence in terms of the spread of migrants, nationalities.

Number one in the United States was Mexico.

Number two is what Guatemala-- I mean, number-- nationality of the apprehensions.

And that Mexico is number one, Guatemala is number two, Honduras is three, Cuba is four, and five is Venezuela.

These are the top five countries of origin that also transit through Mexico though in smaller numbers in the same, or similar shares.

Now, if you look at all of 2021 and the current year, that Mexico provides, Mexico apprehended 308,000 migrants in 2021; 308,000.

And received 131,000 asylum applications in 2021 that place, Mexico-- ranking Mexico number three in the world for receiving asylum applications in the region and that's something that Mexico is grappling with.

Of course, not everybody who's coming to Mexico will qualify for this type of protection but many of them are seeking protection to stay there or to temporarily reside there before they migrate to another place in the region.

Now, for Venezuelans, since 2014, we've seen 6 million Venezuelans leave their country and settle mostly- about 5 million of them- in Central Latin America.

And, this flow of Venezuelans shows that it continues.

It's somewhat slowed down in the last year or so, but it continues to be a significant component of the trends that we see in migration as of now, and that's an important element, as well.

Now, in terms of how countries have-- have been able to respond to these issues, most countries have used enforcement as a first approach to managing those migration flows and that often-- that enforcement often results in deportations and repatriations for people of certain nationalities, perhaps in more frequency than others.

I'll talk about first what we've seen before the pandemic.

Between 2015-- here, let me make sure I have my numbers here.

Between 2015 and 2019, we saw that Mexico and the United States repatriated or deported 1.1 million migrants of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala 1.1 million and that's roughly-- the majority of them but roughly more equal in the latter years from Mexico than from the United States.

We are now seeing similar and we don't have the numbers the same numbers for the last couple of years but we continue to see similar rates of deportation.

In Mexico, the majority of migrants that are apprehended by Mexican authorities are removed from the country of origin, usually to Central America.

But this presents one final issue that I want to bring up here, and that is that not all migrants who the U.S. or Mexico, Costa Rica apprehend are able to be returned to the country of origin, either because humanitarian conditions there do not allow it, or simply in some cases, like, for example, Cuba and Venezuela, their governments make it difficult for migrants to be received.

And that's one of the biggest approaches that we've seen from the Summit of the Americas that allow people-- is to allow countries to receive their nationals back from the region, as we go forward.

Families and children- as you likely know, there's currently a caravan going to Mexico, trying to get to the U.S./Mexico border- families and children are an important component of this.

And the numbers are beginning to decrease where before they were the majority, they're beginning to decrease.

The majority of the caravan participants, they're beginning to decrease.

They still continue to be a large share of people.

And that presents a significant issue for enforcement authorities who, for example, in Mexico, cannot detain families or children in immigration detention centers.

And so therefore, they need shelter capacity and an ability to go forward.

I'll conclude there with the numbers.

And just finally, by saying that in the Summit of the Americas, what we see coming together is an opportunity to increase better management of migration to different policy settings.

And, these I'll label into three different pillars.

The first pillar is creating stability and assistance for communities that are receiving and working with migrants.

So, how do we help communities be able to respond with resources and opportunities to provide, for example, screening protection and food, shelter for those migrants?

Number two, and I think this is a significant opportunity for the region is increased provision-- providing legal pathways and protection for migrants directly.

And this protection doesn't necessarily have to be refugee determination.

It could be a combination of statuses, temporary and/or permanent for migrants, as well.

And, three is making border management more humane.

As of yet, you would likely have seen or as of recent years, you likely have seen that migrant enforcement or management of migrant controls have become more and more violent in certain points, inflicting significant conflict and police confrontation between authorities and migrants.

You can see in January 2021 how migrants trying to travel to Mexico were met with significant opposition by immigration authorities there.

You also saw in Guatemala, you've seen it increasingly in other parts of the country, including in Panama, for example.

And, I think this is going to continue to be a significant component.

I know that I'm running out of time here.

So, Sandy, I will leave it there and maybe have some time for questions to ask some specific- - I'm going to, in the interest of time, read the questions.

Henrietta Burroughs asks, "Why did some countries refuse to allow their nationals to come back into their countries when they've been deported?"

- Well, I should clarify that countries don't refuse to take-- cannot refuse to take someone who's been deported.

If that there's usually not deportation agreements in to how, what time, where, for how long, under what procedures for them to return.

Mexico and United States, for example, have significant detailed repatriation agreements.

Mexico has similar repatriation agreements with Central America, but the countries, for example, Cuba and Venezuela, which has been more difficult to negotiate these agreements because of political differences, have been a significant source of attention in the last several months.

Mexico does have a repatriation agreement with Cuba.

So Mexico does deport migrants to Cuba, but the United States does not, as of yet, deport migrants to Cuba, for example.

- Thank you very much.

Now, we go to Manuel Ortiz Escámez, a photojournalist who has covered extensively events in Mexico, now runs a media platform in northern California called Peninsula 360, and has just recently returned from covering the elections in Colombia.

Manuel, your last presentation for us was when you went to Poland and Ukraine and you provided us with some excellent photographs.

So, thank you for your joining us today.

- No.

Thank you, Sandy.

And, thanks Ethnic Media Services.

For the past ten years I have been traveling to Colombia to cover different issues, mostly issues of forced displacement, human rights and culture.

In all, all this time I have seen a transformation in the country from hope to peace to the return of violence, but also the creation of new social movements, the new platforms and new alliances in between these movements.

I recently coordinated a team of journalists who went to Colombia to cover the first round of elections; was on May 29, sponsored by Global Exchange, in collaboration with some other organizations and media outlets such as Ethnic Media Services.

And I like to say that although I've been many, many times in Colombia, I'm not an expert on Colombia.

In fact, every time I travel to this fascinating country, I have more questions than answers.

So, I'm only going to speak from my own experience.

And for that, I'm going to show some photos with stories of people that I have met during this-- these years.

And perhaps that can give us an idea of what is going on in Colombia, or at least in some places, in some regions of Colombia.

Edil Pallare is a displaced farmworker in María La Baja.

I met him in 2015 when he was returning to his land.

After 2000, some paramilitaries took the power of this this region, the María La Baja, and displaced thousands, thousands of farmworkers not only here, but in another in another communities.

And, in the context of the of the peace agreement that Colombia had, some people start returning to their land in 2000-- between 2013, '14, '15.

So in 2015, you could see people here returning to their land taking their land without a problem.

During the years of the President Alvaro Uribe, and that's why people call-- the Uribismo, was 2000-?

Uh, let me see.

Yeah.

Alvaro Uribe was 2002 to 2010 primarily with the excuse of, of the war on drugs, the government put militaries in all of this area and paramilitaries took this land and gave it to big corporation from old corporation.

So, when the people returned to this land, basically they did not have enough water.

They don't have a place to plant their food.

But, they were kind of happy to be in their land again.

I met this-- this leader.

Her name is Sophia in (indistinct Spanish) in the same region.

She says that they-- at that time, we talk about the peace agreement in 2015.

The peace agreement was signed in 2000-- uh?

2016.

She told me that the peace agreement are not going to work if the government do not include Afro-Colombian people, indigenous people, and other sectors.

And if the peace agreements do not include the returning land to their people.

And, that's what happened.

The peace agreement was signed in 2006, but at the end of-- 2016!

I'm sorry!

But at the end of 2016, the peace agreement was voted...

It was voted 50.2%, no; 49.8%, yes.

(coughs) In a referendum to ratify the agreement, the right wing sectors did a very big campaign, especially on the radio to convince people that if they vote yes, they will lose houses.

They will-- the guerrillas will take power in all the countries so people vote no.

And what happened is that years later, 2016-2017, all of these regions that in 2015 you could basically go without kind of any problem, was taken again, not only by guerrilla, by paramilitaries, but also now by cartels, especially the Sinaloa cartel.

This is another example you might have hear about: "Cien Años de Soledad", "100 Years of Solitude".

Maybe the most famous novel in Latin America by García Márquez.

Well, this is Macondo.

The place you are seeing is the famous Macondo.

It's a magical-- supposed to be a magical region.

But, this is the reality in Macondo.

The people do not have water.

Most of them are these displaced farmworkers.

Again, I met them three years ago.

They were just returning to their land and now they have to leave the line-- to leave the land again because of the violence.

As you can tell in this signs, they said "Vigilantes armada, no paso.

Perros bravos."

"Armed vigilantes, no trespassing.

Fierce dogs."

This land just before was the land of these farmworkers.

With the years of Alvaro Uribe, this corporation took the land, put fences and basically put the farmworkers out.

(Manuel coughs) So, there has been what-- an accumulation of aggressions against Afro-Colombian population, farmworkers, indigenous people, and young people from poor neighborhoods.

We have to say that Colombia have-- is the second place in the world in internal displacement.

Most of the displaced people go to the cities, especially Cali and Medellín.

And the young people who live in poor neighborhoods are children of this-- of the displacement.

(coughs) So, last year April 2000-- April 28, 2022 thousands took the streets in response to a proposed tax reform by the president, Iván Duque.

(coughs) And for the first time in the history of Colombia, different sectors that usually fight for their rights separately, they joined the-- they joined together in the same kind of fight: the young people in the cities, the indigenous people, the farmworkers, and the Afro-Colombian communities.

The response of the government to this was terrible.

Some of these people, some of these young people took-- what is this called?

This is a place that used to be for police.

They took it and they created a library but- - [Sandy] Manuel?

I'm so sorry.

You have to wrap up, so we can have a final question.

We're going-- running slow on time.

Sorry.

- [Manuel] Not a problem.

Well, the response of the government was horrific.

They assassinated hundreds of these young people.

They disappear.

They disappear, many of them.

And they had a tactic coming from Chile, which is shot at the eyes of the of the young people.

So, these are portraits that we had during our last livestream.

And just at the end, one of the candidates from the left-- the left is Petro.

[Gustavo Petro] But I find more interesting that Petro is in the campaign with Francia Márquez, who is an Afro-Colombian leader.

And, I think she represents right now a new hope for these communities.

[computer dings] I'm going to leave it like this, and maybe we can-?

- [Sandy] Thank you.

You know, you gave a perfect example of how the social movements-- you gave us a sense of how they developed and evolved.

So, this was a fascinating portrait.

I want to ask our speakers for one last question, since we're close to the hour of conclusion.

Latin America: is it breaking through this mindset in America that it really, as Kissinger said, what was it?

Two decades ago?

"It's not really worthy of our attention?"

Are we in a position now that we're going to take Latin America more seriously and with the rise of social movements, with the development of energy generation models, with the migration trends, are we in a position-- are we at a turning point in how the U.S. understands Latin America?

Or, am I being too much of an optimist?

Let's start with Mr. Ruiz.

- Thank you, Sandy.

I think that the Summit of the Americas is a wakeup call for the United States and other countries in North America to reorganize and rethink their strategy in involving the Latin American countries that, at least in terms of migration, are the most prevalent and important.

A lot was made out of the absence of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua.

But to me, the bigger absence is the presence of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

I mentioned to you today that these three countries and Mexico represent 61% of the population of migrants coming to the United States so far this year, and not having them, that leadership, I think there, at the summit will definitely leave much more to be served.

I don't know that's a turning page but I think we will begin to see a reshuffling of somehow this-- how these dynamics work, who is involved, and how they are happening.

And, I think we can all look forward to making sure there's some regional, better regional migration management system, which I don't think it's only necessary, but it is the only option, especially with the diversity and migration flows that we see today and not just in toward the United States but really toward other parts of the Americas.

Thank you.

- Thank you; very well-stated.

And Mr. Ortiz, a last question for you; slightly different.

We had hoped to have indigenous perspectives on the summit and on U.S.-Latin relations.

What extent are the indigenous people in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico- all the countries you've covered- do you see the beginnings of the social movement or these alliances you're talking about?

Could you just end us with your perspective on indigenous populations in this landscape?

- Yeah, Sandy.

Yeah, I believe that what is new in Latin America is the emergence of social movements, new social movements.

Most important is the alliance between these movements.

I can say the alliance of some indigenous movements that for decades have been fighting isolated in their communities or perhaps they will start communicating with some other communities, even with indigenous here in the United States.

I think we are understanding that what happened in one region, what happened in Colombia happened in Mexico, would affect us in Mexico, affect us in the U.S.

So, perhaps we are understanding that, and I think we will-- what we will see is are these alliances of people working together in order to create a social change beyond the people in the government?

- That's a positive note to end on.

And, I want to thank our speakers so much for sharing your experience, your perspectives and your expertise.

We have you on our radar.

And, thank you so much.

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