Washington [US]: The United States on Saturday (local time) announced that it is discontinuing aid to three Central America countries- El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras- for “setting up” migrants caravans for entry into the US, reports CNN.
“At the Secretary’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 State Department spokesperson said. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”
This comes a day after US President”>US President Donald Trump remarked, “We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we are not paying them anymore. Because they haven’t done a thing for us. They set up these caravans.”
However, experts have claimed that cutting off aid will have the opposite impact and will instead increase migration as people will have no other option than to leave.
The exact amount allocated to these three countries is unknown. However, entire Central America has received $1.3 billion with the vast majority going to these countries.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]