Mexico says leaders of Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras to attend weekend migration summit

Associated Press
Wed, October 18, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president says the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Honduras will attend a summit on migration that Mexico will host Sunday.

The four countries are among the biggest sources of migrants currently showing up at the U.S. border.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Cuba and Prime Minister Ariel Henry of Haiti will attend the meeting in the southern city of Palenque, along with Honduran President Xiomara Castro.

López Obrador said the leaders of Ecuador and Guatemala also will attend, and that other countries are expected to send officials to the meeting.

López Obrador said the meeting will address migration and the root causes that lead people to leave their home countries.

López Obrador recently acknowledged that migration has spiked and that as many as 10,000 migrants are crossing Mexico daily to reach the U.S. border.

Many are coming through the jungle-clad Darien Gap. Panama estimates that 420,700 migrants have crossed the Gap from Colombia to Panama so far this year, making it likely the full-year number will top a half million.