Agriculture Secretary Víctor Villalobos and the Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Maximiliano Reyes, attended the 17th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Tuxtla Mechanism for Dialogue and Coordination held on August 21-23 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on behalf of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Summit was attended by the heads of State and Government and other representatives of Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.
At Mexico's initiative, the participants condemned the terrorist attack carried out in El Paso, Texas, on August 3 against Hispanics that was driven by hate, xenophobia and racial discrimination. Mexico again conveyed its condolences to and reiterated its solidarity with the victims' families. Mexico also thanked the Member States of the Tuxtla Mechanism for their support for the initiative, which was included in the San Pedro Sula Declaration adopted at the Summit.
The declaration also mentions the progress made by the Mechanism since the last Summit, held in San José, Costa Rica, in March 2017, and the group's priorities for the next two years. The group took decisions that will strengthen Mesoamerican integration in areas such as energy, communications, transportation and trade facilitation.
The San Pedro Sula Declaration emphasizes the need to address the structural causes of migration by creating opportunities for development in the migrants' hometowns, and by improving the conditions that currently lead to irregular migration, so that migration can be an option, not a necessity,
Lastly, the member States welcomed Mexico's offer to host the 18th Tuxtla Summit in 2021.
Mexico thanks the people and Government of Honduras for the warm welcome received by the Mexican delegation and for their hard work in organizing the Summit.
