TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – A plan by Central American governments to boost economic growth in the region and cut illegal immigration to the United States foresees major spending on infrastructure and energy projects, a draft of the proposal showed on Wednesday.
The “Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle” aims to renovate highways, city bypasses and border crossings in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as carry out improvements to other infrastructure in the region.
A surge of unaccompanied children this year to the U.S. border has pushed the United States, Mexico and Central American nations to seek new strategies to curb the number of children and families trying to get into U.S. territory.
The development plan, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, proposes doubling the capacity of the shared Central American network of power grids known as SIEPAC as well as supplying natural gas from southern Mexico to Central America.
The proposal, which was developed with the help of the Inter-American Development Bank, also includes plans to improve several airports in the region, including in Belize and Nicaragua.
It mentions a regional investment plan from 2015 to 2019, but that section of the document was blank in a copy reviewed by Reuters.
Foreign ministers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador presented the plan to U.S. and Mexican officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, without giving details of what it involved.
The draft did not detail how much money would be needed to carry out the works mentioned, some of which have already been announced such as a $1.2 billion planned pipeline between Salina Cruz in Mexico and Escuintla in southern Guatemala.
Mexican lawmakers say boosting economic development in the region is crucial to stop the flow of migrants north. The projects listed could be worth millions of dollars to construction firms in Mexico, the United States and elsewhere.
