Guatemala calls "insult to Latin America" proposed U.S. wall

Agencia EFE ^ | Dec. 29, 2005 | Staff

[Kitten Festival]

Guatemala City, Dec 29 (EFE).- Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein on Thursday described as "an insult to Latin America" the U.S. proposal to build a wall along its border with Mexico.

"We take it as a total insult to all Latin America that a government calling itself a friend and partner in the region only wants our money and our goods, but sees our people as if they were an epidemic. They treat us as if we were a sub-hemisphere of criminals," Stein told reporters.

The vice president was talking about United States plans to build an wall along its border with Mexico to halt the thousands of immigrants that every day try to enter the country illegally. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill two weeks ago.

To reporters' questions about whether U.S. migration policy could "chill" diplomatic ties between Guatemala and the United States, Stein answered that "there will be a need to reconsider" relations.

"Not just by building walls and passing tough laws that criminalize the search for better economic opportunities" can migration problems be solved, he said. The U.S. proposal is not only "absolutely intolerable and inhuman, (but) it forces us to consider other choices in terms of international alliances," Stein said.

[Kitten Festival]

He's threatening to join Hugo Chavez if we don't let his illegal aliens in. All I can say is: Feel free.

[Redleg Duke]

Hey, Guatemala...blow it out your MS13!

[yarddog]

Well it is meant as an insult. You deserve to be insulted and more.

[samadams2000]

Lets take over that country tonight and start dumping our garbage there tomorrow.

[Sonny M]

If he thinks the wall is an insult, he should trying talking to the American people and see what they think, then he'll see real insults.

[Dog Gone]

No, don't feel free. The merits of the wall or lack thereof aside, we don't want Central America to slip into the clutches of Chavez and Castro.

We've already seen what that can do.

[Rakkasan1]

the real insult is that he helps run such a great country that everyone who can walk,jump or swim wants to leave by any means necessary.

[RightWhale]

They treat us as if we were a sub-hemisphere of criminals," Stein told reporters.

Not at all. More like a collection of failed and failing states.

[Ben Mugged]

passing tough laws that criminalize the search for better economic opportunities

He already sounds like a socialist.

[Czar]

I thought Guatemala was a landfill...

[axes_of_weezles]

I propose we use illegal alien Guatemalans to build the wall, using Joe Arpaio type tent cities. /Sarcasm

[andyk]

a government calling itself a friend and partner in the region only wants our money and our goods, but sees our people as if they were an epidemic.

Yes, trading us for goods is so awful, and yet your country continues to do it. It's got nothing to do with "your" people. It has evertying to do with people who enter this country illegally, on a daily basis.

[Kitten Festival]

I guess not. But they should not be threatening us like that. If they are not coming here illegally, they should feel truly welcome as friends and partners. This VP annoys me though, he's doing the sort of thing Imelda Marcos used to do until Reagan got tired of her.

[RegulatorCountry]

This genius just can't figure out that the real insult is coming from his own people, voting with their feet. So he rants against a "wall" that is not even on the border of his country. I smell a socialist. Nobody else would conflate cause and effect, and interpret their own ignorance as an insult.

[Congressman Billybob]

There are two things wrong with this statement from Guatemala. One is that all the people who are sneaking across the US Mexican border ARE criminals. The other is that Mexico uses its army to guard its southern border to prevent the likes of the Guatemalans from getting in.

So, if Guatemalans want to sneak into the US, their first objection is to the Mexicans, not us. What a pack of maroons.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "Football, Warfare, and Public Policy"

[andyk]

I propose we use illegal alien Guatemalans to build the wall, using Joe Arpaio type tent cities

Maybe he thought we want to build the wall out of Guatemalan illegals.

[ricks_place]

Should we care what the Guatemalan Vice President says?

This guy is less significant the the Prime Minister of Canuckistan. (Apologies to right thinking Canadians.)

[McGavin999]

Keep your darned goods. We'll just pull investment out of South and Central America and call it a day. Go ahead a join Chavez, have fun living under tyranny.

[Dog Gone]

The best thing that can happen is that Central America lives up to its potential and the citizens there feel like they have a future.

That's already happened in Panama and Costa Rica. You never hear of illegal immigrants from those countries coming to the US.

Guatemala needs to figure out what it's doing wrong. There is no shortage of friendly advice we could give.

[DumpsterDiver]

"We take it as a total insult to all Latin America that a government calling itself a friend and partner in the region only wants our money and our goods, but sees our people as if they were an epidemic. They treat us as if we were a sub-hemisphere of criminals," Stein told reporters.

"We take it as a total insult..." Good! And I take it as a total insult everytime one of your citizens hops that border.

What are there, maybe 4 people in Latin America who are capable of wrapping their brains around the concept of the rule of law?