{"id":44884,"date":"2016-03-18T07:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T11:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/central-american-leaders-urge-broader-partnerships-to-advance-development-and-opportunities-for-youth\/"},"modified":"2016-03-18T07:40:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T11:40:18","slug":"lideres-centroamericanos-instan-asociacion-mas-amplia-para-avanzar-el-desarrollo-y-las-oportunidades-para-la-juventud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/lideres-centroamericanos-instan-asociacion-mas-amplia-para-avanzar-el-desarrollo-y-las-oportunidades-para-la-juventud\/","title":{"rendered":"Central American leaders urge broader partnerships to advance development and opportunities for youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><![CDATA[\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\nspan.prnews_span\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\na.prnews_a\n{\ncolor:blue;\n}\nli.prnews_li\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\np.prnews_p\n{\nfont-size:0.62em;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\nmargin:0in;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n<div class=\"xn-content\">\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">WASHINGTON<\/span>, <span class=\"xn-chron\">March 18, 2016<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; Members of the Latin American Presidential Mission marked the 30<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Esquipulas Accords that ended decades of conflict in <span class=\"xn-location\">Central America<\/span> by proposing a revival of the Esquipulas process to address the region&#8217;s current problems during a visit to <span class=\"xn-location\">Washington<\/span> this week.<\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20160317\/345647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20160317\/345647<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Regional challenges include extreme poverty and income inequality that fuel high levels of violence and drive illegal immigration to the U.S. The Esquipulas approach calls for an integrated strategy among all the region&#8217;s nations with U.S. support.<\/p>\n<p>The group of former Central American presidents met at the Organization of American States, on Capitol Hill and at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center with policymakers and representatives of civil society, think tanks, and business. They provided updates on current dynamics in the region and proposed partnerships across the Americas focused on innovative, values-based solutions.<\/p>\n<p>The presidents included <span class=\"xn-person\">Vinicio Cerezo<\/span> and <span class=\"xn-person\">Alvaro Colom<\/span> of <span class=\"xn-location\">Guatemala<\/span>, Armando Calder\u00f3n of <span class=\"xn-location\">El Salvador<\/span>, <span class=\"xn-person\">Laura Chinchilla<\/span> of <span class=\"xn-location\">Costa Rica<\/span>, and Nicolas\u00a0Ardito\u00a0Barletta\u00a0of <span class=\"xn-location\">Panama<\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>The group offered a civil society channel for dialogue to the bipartisan Central America Caucus and House Speaker <span class=\"xn-person\">Paul Ryan&#8217;s<\/span> office, and to diplomats at the Organization of American States.\u00a0 They represent the Latin American Presidential Mission, a non-partisan, civic association of over twenty democratically elected former heads of state established in 2012 with support from the Global Peace Foundation, the Esquipulas Foundation of <span class=\"xn-location\">Guatemala<\/span>, and other partners. <\/p>\n<p>In a town hall meeting with the former presidents on Wednesday, Guatemalan Foreign Minister <span class=\"xn-person\">Carlos Morales<\/span> said, &#8220;I am happy that the (Central American) Northern Triangle is now part of U.S. foreign policy priorities.&#8221; He went on to say, &#8220;The response to migration is to create opportunities.&#8221; He explained that young people in the region face three options: work in agriculture, migrate to the U.S., or join a gang.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"xn-person\">Gloriana Sojo<\/span>, a young social entrepreneur at <span class=\"xn-org\">George Washington University<\/span>, said that most young Central Americans do not join gangs. &#8220;We have real aspirations and want real opportunities,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Other speakers included <span class=\"xn-person\">Anthony Kim<\/span>, co-author of the annual Index of Economic Freedom, <span class=\"xn-person\">Esmeralda Lopez<\/span> of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and <span class=\"xn-person\">Reuben Smith-Vaughan<\/span> of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalpeace.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.globalpeace.org<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.misionpresidencial.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.misionpresidencial.com<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Contact:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <span class=\"xn-person\">Michael Marshall<\/span>, Global Peace Foundation<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0202-302-3756<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:mmarshall@globalpeace.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">mmarshall@globalpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"xn-content\">\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">WASHINGTON<\/span>, <span class=\"xn-chron\">March 18, 2016<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; Members of the Latin American Presidential Mission marked the 30<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Esquipulas Accords that ended decades of conflict in <span class=\"xn-location\">Central America<\/span> by proposing a revival of the Esquipulas process to address the region&#8217;s current problems during a visit to <span class=\"xn-location\">Washington<\/span> this week.<\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; &lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20160317\/345647&quot;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}