President Yoweri Museveni has strongly criticized the ongoing migration crisis in Latin America, deeming it unacceptable and irrational. He pointed out that the leaders of these nations have betrayed the trust of their citizens. Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Museveni highlighted the need to focus on building a Latin America-like prosperity within Africa rather than seeking to replicate the United States of America’s affluence through migration.

He emphasized that Latin Americans are enduring tremendous hardships, fleeing man-made poverty in their countries, despite their rich natural resources and culture, all because of the allure of man-made affluence in the USA, which emphasizes integration.

Museveni stressed that his government, guided by the four principles of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) – Patriotism, Pan-Africanism, social-economic transformation, and democracy – provides ample opportunities for wealth creation among farmers, artisans, manufacturers, and service providers. This approach involves giving them access to a large market and eliminating sectarianism, which helps in building strong national institutions, including the security forces.

He also highlighted how the NRM’s ideology of patriotism and Pan-Africanism has fostered harmony among the people and eliminated Uganda’s refugee problem, which was once a significant issue.

Museveni concluded that prioritizing interests over identity manipulation has created more opportunities for prosperity, stability, and the development of capable state institutions.

The United Nations has warned about the risks faced by children in Latin America who are forced to leave their homes due to gang violence, instability, poverty, and climate change. Approximately 25% of migrants in the region are children, nearly double the global average of 13%. Their journeys are often plagued by disease, injury, family separation, and abuse.

In the perilous Darien jungle route alone, over 60,000 children made the crossing in the first eight months of 2023, with half of them being under the age of five, marking a record high for a single year. A similar trend is observed at the southern border of the United States, where authorities recorded over 83,000 child arrivals in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023. This issue has been escalating in recent years, with over 155,000 and 149,000 child crossings recorded in fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively.

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