President Sánchez said El Salvador is aware of the factors that lead many of its people to migrate and has therefore a joint action plan with Guatemala and Honduras with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS) to bolster productive investment, security and human capacity-building in the region, aiming to improve living conditions in the communities of origin to reduce the current flow of populations in the medium- and long term.

“At the same time, El Salvador needs support and guarantees that the rights of our co-nationals will be respected in countries of transit and destination. The wall is not a solution: it will only lead to greater hate,” he declared.

He went on to acknowledge that peace and security would be threatened without sustainable development, and expressed his country’s full support for the UN 2030 Agenda. In particular, El Salvador has made extraordinary efforts to reduce violence in its municipalities, as evidenced by a marked reduction in homicides in recent months – by some 50 per cent – as compared to the first part of the year.

Attempts to destabilize Governments in the region, in particular Brazil, not only fly in the face of the rule of law, but hamper democracy, he went on to say. In that context, he also expressed solidity with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros and the Venezuelan people, saying he trusted they would find solutions through dialogue.

He applauded the decisive role of the United Nations in promoting international peace and security, and praised the support given to his country over the past 25 years. The peace accord reached in 1992 after his country’s civil war was a successful example of resolving conflicts through the world body and could be used as a reference to resolving others. El Salvador was happy to share its experience, as it did in the case of Colombia, which itself had just reached an historic accord.