President Donald Trump claims that Central American countries “haven’t done a thing” for the United States.
“At the Secretary [Mike Pompeo’s] instruction we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle”, a DOS spokesman told ABC News and added that “we will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”
The U.S.-based outlet Politico reported that some US$627 million, which Congress allocated to the Central American countries last year, are “blocked” and it is still unknown if this funds will be delivered to them.
”I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. No money goes there anymore… We’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Trump said, as reported by ABC news.
The Northern Triangle is a Central American region where most of the migrants have come from in recent years. In December 2018, Trump warned that U.S. assistance to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador would cease.