Mexico tightens visa rules for certain foreigners who make a stopover in the country

He mexican government reported on Saturday, on the eve of hosting a summit on migration with several countries in the region, that all those foreign originating from countries that require a visa to enter Mexico They must also carry it, even if they only want to stopover at Mexican airports as part of their transit to other destinations.

The Secretary of Foreign Relations indicated in a statement that these people must have the corresponding visa “before departure in your home country in order to tackle any flight to Mexico”.

The measure announced by Mexicowhich will affect the nationals of the main countries that expel migrants from Latin America, Africa and Asiawill come into force on Sunday, just when the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will meet in the south of the country with his counterparts from Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela to seek strategies that stop the migratory flow through the region.

At the summit, which will take place in Palenque, Chiapas – a state bordering Guatemala – representatives from Belize will also be present, Guatemala, The Savior, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador.

The imposition of visas has for years been one of the ways to try to stop the flow of migrants towards USAbut although there have been specific decreases, the number of migrants has not stopped growing.

The Palenque Summit: Regional leaders seek solutions

So far this year, more than 420,000 people have crossed the Darién jungle, the irregular crossing that connects Colombia with Panama, and US authorities have intercepted more than two million people in the last year. migrants.

The Palenque summit comes two weeks after a high-level meeting between US and Mexican authorities, and as both countries are stepping up deportations.

Washington resumed direct deportations to Cuba in April, and in Venezuela this same week. For her part, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said on Tuesday in the Senate that repatriations to Cuba and Hondurasand they would also go to Venezuela, one of the reasons why he visited Caracas on Monday.

According to their data, 60,000 Venezuelans entered Mexico in September, with which “it is impossible for us to do good management“Bárcena added.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his Cuban counterpart Miguel Díaz-Canel, two of the leaders who will be in Mexico on Sunday, were not invited by the United States last year to the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles also to talk about migration and to which López Obrador did not attend as a sign of protest for not including them. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was not summoned to that meeting either.

Nicaragua is also not on the guest list mentioned by the Mexican government.

With information from AP