#central america's northern triangle

[reportwire]

Thought Leaders Gather for Forum on Central American Security & Economic Prosperity

Thought Leaders Gather for Forum on Central American Security & Economic Prosperity

The forum will examine Central America’s Northern Triangle security, governance and socio-economic challenges, as well as recent commitments by the Biden Administration and multilateral development banks for expanded aid to the region. Press Release – updated: May 25, 2021 LA JOLLA, Calif., May 25, 2021 (Newswire.com) – The Institute of the Americas will convene a two half-day, virtual forum…

[todays-xkcd]

Running for office in Minnesota on the single-issue platform 'dig a permanent channel through the Traverse Gap because it will make this map more satisfying.'

Dubious Islands [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Title:] Dubious Islands of North America [Subtitle:] And the waterways that separate them

[A map of mainland North America, down to the Panama isthmus. It is internally separated by various waterways, given labels or otherwise.]

[Separating land approximating Nunavut (with some Northern Territories) from neighbouring Canada:] Mackenzie Athabasca Churchill

[Comprising the much of the remainder of Canada, much of the northern United States (including Alaska), additionally separated by:] Columbia Snake Madison Missouri Chicago

[Unlabelled, some of the Great Lakes and the channel past Quebec] [An incursive gap near the central point, from the north:] Nelson Red [An internal label, with arrow:] Traverse Gap [An incursive gap near the central point, from the south:] Mississippi [A separate fragment of land south of the Madison, in the western half of the land-mass, bordered to its south by:] Yellowstone [A small fragment off the southen part of the western edge, an arrow and a label:] Chehalis/Black Lake

[Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and parts of the adjacent US, disconnected by:] Champlain Hudson [Label with an arrow on the east coast:] Cape Cod Canal

[A small triangle of territory, further isolated by:] Erie

[Most of the Eastern Seaboard of the US, additionally divided off by:] Tombigbee

[Fragment of land shorn from the northern part of the eastern edge, label with arrow:] Chesapeake and Delaware Canal [Fragment of land shorn from the tip of Florida, label with arrow:] Okeechobee Waterway

[Strip of land west of the Tombigbee, bounded also to its west by:] Mississippi [Fragment of land immediately to its south, with a nearby label and arrow:] Atchafalaya

[The remainder of the continent; comprising much of the US, all of Mexico and various central American territories, with a final tip of the eastwards-bending isthmus:] Panama Canal

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #11

March 22-29 2024

The Administration, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the lead responded to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Working with Governor Wes Moore and Mayor Brandon Scott (both Democrats) The Department of Transportation promises to clear the harbor and rebuild the bride. DoT has already released $60 million in emergency funds as a "down payment" and President Biden is expected to seek $1 billion from Congress.

Vice President Harris announced a number of actions and investments designed to improve the quality of life of the peoples of northern central America. driven by poverty, lack of economic opportunities, and out of control crime people in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are taking great risks and trusting criminal human traffickers to try to reach the US. The Administration is working to improve conditions in the Northern Triangle so that is no longer necessary. Vice President Harris announced $1 billion dollars in new investments as part of the Central America Forward public-private partnership, since 2021 it has invested $5.2 billion in the region. Harris also announced $175 million dollars of direct aid from the US to Guatemala at a meeting with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.

The Department of Energy announced a $1.5 billion dollar loan to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant. This would mark the first time a nuclear power plant was brought back online after being decommissioned. The hope is keep the plant running till 2051, this 100% green power source is projected to prevent 111 million tons of CO2 emissions in its new life time, the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted it as key for her state reaching its goal of 100% clean energy by 2040.

Vice President Harris launched a social media push to inform the public about the Biden-Harris Administration's SAVE Plan. The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan was launched last year as part of President Biden's efforts to bring student loan forgiveness to millions of borrowers. Currently 7.7 million people are enrolled in SAVE, under which anyone making $16 a hour or less has a monthly payment of $0 on their student loans. 4.5 million SAVE enrollees are making $0 a month payments and another 1 million pay less than $100 a month on their loan repayment, over 150,000 people so far have had their loans totally forgiven. Republicans are suing to try to shut down the SAVE Plan

President Biden took keep steps to ensure quality healthcare this week. Biden extended the window for low-income Americans to apply for Obamacare. The original deadline of July 31st has been pushed back to November 30th. Biden also rolled back Trump era rules that allowed subsidies for "Junk Health insurance" These plans offer very little coverage and often mislead consumers into believing they have insurance when they aren't covered. These short term plans also don't have meet Obamacare standards and can refuse coverage for preexisting conditions.

The EPA announced new regulations aimed at "turbocharging" the number of electric trucks on the road. The new rules aim to have 25% of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest often diesel trucks on the road, and 40% of medium-size trucks (box trucks and landscaping vehicles) be nonpolluting by 2032, currently just 2% are. The regulation would apply to more than 100 types of vehicles including tractor-trailers, ambulances, R.V.s, garbage trucks and moving vans. The new tailpipe limits are expected to prevent about a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2055.

the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services�� announced that thanks to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, 41 different drugs will coast those on Medicare Part B less money than it did last year.  An estimated 763,700 people on Medicare use at least one of these drugs every year. Some enrollees will save as much as $3,575 per dose.

The Department of Energy announced $6 billion for an effort to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. The investment in 33 projects across 20 states will eliminate 14 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year when finished. Each project is meant to be highly replicable and serve as a blueprint for future private sector ventures. 

President Biden signed an Executive Order to Strengthen the Recognition of Women’s History. The Order will launch a review of all historic sites run by the National Parks Service to determine ways to better highlight the role of women, from all backgrounds, in American History.

The Senate Confirmed President Biden's nominees, Ernesto Gonzalez, and Leon Schydlower to federal judgeships in Texas. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 190.

[mariacallous]

In mid-January, Phil Gordon visited Guatemala to hand deliver a letter from Kamala Harris to a man who very likely owed his presidency to U.S. diplomatic intervention.

Bernardo Arévalo de León had just been inaugurated as Guatemala’s new leader, despite efforts by the country’s outgoing government over months to derail a democratic transition of power. Gordon, the U.S. vice president’s national security advisor, was in Guatemala to attend Arévalo’s inauguration with a delegation of other high-level Biden administration officials.

The letter congratulated him on his victory and invited him to Washington for a meeting with Harris, according to a copy reviewed by Foreign Policy. But its real significance was spelled out between the lines. A senior administration official involved in the discussions said the letter was a “signal that the U.S. gives full-throated support to Arévalo and Guatemala’s democratic transition of power.”

The inauguration itself took place after midnight on Jan. 15, following a dramatic final effort by members of Guatemala’s outgoing government to halt the proceedings. Gordon and other members of the U.S. delegation were instrumental in ensuring the transition of power took place, having imposed sanctions and visa restrictions, and back channeled with other embassies to pressure Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to accept the election results and step aside.

The democratic transition in Guatemala represents one of the clearest victories of U.S. President Joe Biden’s agenda to promote democracy worldwide, as well as a rare example of Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security team playing a distinct and direct role in shepherding it through, according to interviews with multiple administration insiders and Central America experts. The episode provides possible insights into how Harris’s foreign-policy team would work should she win the presidential election in November.

While it went relatively unnoticed in Washington, where people are largely focused on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the U.S. maneuver to bolster democracy in Guatemala was a policy win—in stark contrast to some of the administration’s endeavors in other parts of the world. The Biden administration has faced criticism for embracing autocrats in ways that undermined his stated goals of promoting global democracy. Across West Africa, the United States has failed to stem an “epidemic” of coups that dealt a heavy blow to U.S. interests. In Afghanistan, which the United States withdrew from chaotically three years ago, democracy is more distant than ever.

“Probably the most key player for securing this transition for Arévalo was the international community and specifically the United States,” said Marielos Chang, a Guatemalan political consultant and professor at the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala.

When Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race last month and endorsed Harris, one of the many questions posed about the vice president was: What role had she played on foreign-policy issues? Many current and former U.S. national security officials say it is hard to discern where Harris and her small national security team have made a mark—but Guatemala stands as an exception.

Harris became the administration’s point person on Central America’s Northern Triangle region to tackle the root causes of migration, an assignment that later became a point of controversy on the campaign trail—and a source of criticism from Republicans. Migration encounters at the U.S. southern border hit a record high at the end of 2023, and border security and migration remains a major issue for both parties on the campaign trail, particularly for Republicans.

“President Biden gave Vice President Harris one job—‘border czar’—and she failed miserably,” Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last month, echoing similar charges across the board from Republicans that the Harris campaign has sought to push back on.

Throughout her time as vice president, Harris and her national security team worked closely with Giammattei’s government to try to tackle the root causes of migration from the source, even before Guatemala’s transition crisis.

Guatemala is Central America’s most populous country and a key hub for the flow of migrants north toward the U.S. southern border.

One key initiative Harris’s team and other National Security Council (NSC) officials worked on with Giammattei was the “safe mobility office” initiative, to try to establish offices in the region where people could apply for asylum in the United States from afar or learn about the convoluted U.S. migration system before ever reaching the U.S. border.

Gordon met with Giammattei for over nine hours in one of his numerous trips to Guatemala as they hashed out these proposals, according to a senior administration official familiar with the matter. This official and others spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on the record about internal government deliberations.

The National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit organization that tracks migration issues, has said that “much remains unclear about the offices’ operational realities” but that it is aimed at lessening the burden on immigration systems at the border and deterring people from trying to venture there in the first place.

Arévalo won Guatemala’s presidential election in August 2023 by a comfortable margin on a campaign of anti-corruption reforms. In the wake of the election, “we were starting to see signs that Giammattei’s administration was seeking to block the outcome of the free and fair elections and prevent a peaceful transfer of power,” said Katie Tobin, the former top Biden migration advisor at the NSC.

From there, Harris’s team was well placed to launch the pressure campaign on the outgoing government to accept the election results. It was also coordinated by the top U.S. diplomat at the time in Guatemala, Patrick Ventrell, and other State Department and Treasury Department officials, according to the officials familiar with the matter.

In October, the administration announced sanctions on Guatemalan officials linked to corruption. In November, Gordon traveled again to Guatemala to meet with both Giammattei and Arévalo separately to “reinforc[e] the importance of the peaceful democratic transfer of power,” according to a White House readout of the meetings at the time. Days after his visit, the Biden administration sanctioned another former top Guatemalan official for his role in “ongoing efforts to undermine the democratic transfer of power.”

Then, on Dec. 11, the State Department announced visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalans, including over 100 Guatemalan members of Congress and other business elites, for “ongoing anti-democratic actions” that sought to interrupt the transition of power.

“That sent a really strong message to all politicians, that the United States was not going to be just waiting to see what happens,” Chang said. Chang said that Guatemalans paid close attention to the diplomatic campaign by the United States, and in particular the top U.S. diplomat there, Ventrell. Harris’s personal role, Chang said, wasn’t visible in Guatemala in the same way it was back in Washington in internal government deliberations.

The pressure appeared to be working, and Giammattei and his proxies began backing down. But there would be one last dramatic political battle, and members of Harris’s national security team would find themselves at the center of it.

Biden in January announced he was sending a delegation of eight senior U.S. officials to Guatemala for Arévalo’s inauguration, led by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power. The delegation also included Gordon and Tobin, as well as Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Lawmakers who opposed Arévalo threw up more roadblocks, delaying the special session of Congress to finish the inauguration and sparking fears of a last-minute coup. Arévalo’s supporters rallying to celebrate his inauguration grew increasingly restive and impatient as the hours dragged on, eventually clashing with riot police and gathering outside the congressional building.

The showdown also intersected with the U.S. election campaign, as one of former President Donald Trump’s top confidants, Ric Grenell, traveled to Guatemala in the days leading up to the inauguration and threw his support behind the efforts to derail Arévalo’s ascent to the presidency, as the Washington Post reported. Grenell reportedly backed hard-line conservatives who sought to block the transition and alleged that the U.S. foreign-policy establishment was trying to “intimidate conservatives” in the country. Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany, has emerged as one of the most influential voices in the MAGA movement advising Trump on his 2024 run.

On the day of the planned inauguration, Biden’s delegation went into crisis mode. “We were at the [U.S.] ambassador’s residence during this, for nine hours,” Tobin recalled. “The [USAID] administrator, Phil [Gordon], our charges d’affaires [Ventrell] were all making tons of calls to the outgoing government and incoming administration” and “coordinating with foreign delegations” in response to the eleventh-hour crisis, she said.

“We worked out a unified message as the international community there that we were expecting the Guatemalan government to do the right thing and uphold democratic values,” she added. They weren’t alone. Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president, who was also in Guatemala for the inauguration and has outsized political influence in the region, vowed not to leave until Arévalo was inaugurated.

In the end, the pressure from Guatemalan protesters and the international community worked. Arévalo was sworn in shortly after midnight on Jan. 15. “That transition almost didn’t happen, until it finally did,” Tobin said.

Shortly after the inauguration, Harris issued a statement “commend[ing] the people of Guatemala for making their voices heard and this important transition.” Her team has maintained close contact with Arévalo in the months since; Gordon met him along the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany in February and Arévalo took Harris up on her offer for a White House meeting, visiting Washington in March. Giammattei, meanwhile, has been barred from entering the United States over U.S. allegations of “his involvement in significant corruption,” according to the State Department.

“A lot of people have critical views of the United States as not always a good player regarding their actions in Latin America,” Chang said, citing Guatemala among other cases. “With this specific example, however, you can see how the United States can actually help in countries that are struggling with democratic transitions.”

[shreygoyal]

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US-based industries have polluted our world with seven hundred times more emissions than the entire Northern Triangle of Central America, and the overall ecological debt owed to poor countries by rich ones is estimated at 47 trillion dollars.

—Harsha Walia, Border and Rule

(Source)

[gurutrends]

US immigration policy will change 'little or not at all', says congressman Toño Rivera

Congressman Antonio ‘Toño’ Rivera Callejas stated that regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris win the next elections in the United States, the immigration policy towards the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) will change “little or nothing” According to Rivera in an interview with Proceso Digital, both parties, Republican and Democratic,…

[chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted]

Remember she had to beat Trump to the border

Remember she had to beat Trump to the border, after she was put in charge of stemming the migration to the southern border, so Joe Biden could shift the blame to Harris during his big press conference?

Why did NBC ask her about the border if she had nothing to do with the border? In 2021, while illegals crossed the border in record numbers, Harris claimed in five months “we’ve made progress.”

Direct Quotes

The visit to El Paso came amid a smattering of criticism that's followed Harris since being tasked by President Joe Biden with leading diplomatic e orts in the Northern Triangle to address immigration.

Harris endured a rocky first foreign trip -- her two-day swing through Mexico and Guatemala -- with sources telling CNN at the time that the trip left some officials perplexed about her bumpy answers to questions about whether she will go to the border.

"At some point, you know, we are going to the border," Harris said in an interview with NBC News while on the Central America trip. "We've been to the border. So this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border. We've been to the border."

But when pressed on the fact that she still had not visited the border, Harris responded, "... and I haven't been to Europe. And I mean, I don't -- I don't understand the point that you're making," Harris said with a laugh, adding, "I'm not discounting the importance of the border."

"We have said over a number of different occasions ... that she would go to the border. She has been before, she would go again. She would go when it was appropriate, when it made sense. And this trip tomorrow, this timing, is what made sense for the vice president's schedule, but also, for our partners on the ground," Sanders added.

A record number of unaccompanied children crossed into the US this spring, further intensifying GOP criticism of the Biden administration's handling. CBP encountered more than 180,000 migrants at the southern border in May, putting the US on track to surpass the number of border crossings in fiscal year 2019.

She said the Biden administration "inherited a tough situation," but that in five months, "we've made progress."

Shaw Drake, a staff attorney and policy counsel for border and immigrants' rights with the ACLU of Texas, told CNN's Ed Lavandera that although the Biden White House has taken some very important steps to address immigration, "the administration, to this point, is not doing enough."

Asked about Harris' upcoming trip, Biden said on Thursday that Harris has "done a great job so far."

[ourlifeinelsalvadorcom]

El Salvador stands out as the country with the fewest migrants to the U.S. from the Northern Triangle of Central America.

Based on data reported by international media sources, El Salvador garnered attention as the Northern Triangle country, with the fewest migrants heading to the United States in the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. El Salvador stands out as the Northern Triangle country with the fewest migrants heading to the United States, based on data reported by the Agence Française de Presse (AFP). The records…

[egregious1942]

U.S. aid to Central America: What it does, why Trump cut it and why that may not end the migration crisis

Alan Gomez USA TODAY President Donald Trump’s decision to cut $450 million in foreign aid to three Central American countries – collectively known as the Northern Triangle – will end dozens of projects designed to bolster security, the economy, education and judicial systems. The goal of the programs is to improve conditions in the countries so citizens don’t flee to the U.S. While Trump wants…

[countryconditionswithshiro]

Human Rights Watch, “Every Day I Live in Fear” (10/7/2020)

CW: human rights violations/sexual assault/gang violence

(I Background)

“El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, which comprise Central America’s Northern Triangle [(“the Northern Triangle”)], have among the world’s highest murder rates.”

“Education and employment discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity contribute further to economic marginalization, ultimately leaving many LGBT people without stable livelihoods and few housing options outside of poor and often gang-controlled neighborhoods.”

“None of the governments in the Northern Triangle have criminalized same-sex conduct since the 19th century, but measures to protect LGBT people from discrimination are insufficient.”

“El Salvador outlaw[s] discrimination on various grounds, but do[es] not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity, and even where such laws are open-ended in terms of the categories that they protect, they are not applied.”

“[T]he government[] of El Salvador…[has] failed to curb gang violence against the population in general, but LGBT people may face an additional barrier to protection: … LGBT people reported stigma and discrimination from police officers when they attempted to report crimes, deterring some LGBT crime victims from reporting at all…”

“Between January 2007 and November 2017, at least 4,385 people sought asylum in the United States based on claims of persecution related to gender identity or sexual orientation, according to data NBC News obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

“Undoubtedly, for decades, individual LGBT people from the Northern Triangle have fled their countries for reasons related in part to discrimination and violence based on gender identity or sexual orientation.”

(II El Salvador)

“State authorities have historically been largely ineffective in protecting the population from this violence … Authorities may be unable to help protect Salvadoran citizens who are victimized by violence for reasons including fear for their own security, infiltration of authorities’ offices by gangs, and insufficient resources.”

“Article 246 of the penal code prohibits job discrimination based on ‘sex, pregnancy, origin, civil status, race, social or physical condition, religious or political beliefs, membership or lack of membership in a labor union, or relationship with other workers.’ The term ‘sex’ has been held to be inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity in some jurisdictions elsewhere in the world… but no existing jurisprudence or authoritative legal guidance in El Salvador makes clear whether such grounds are covered under article 246.”

“Article 292 of the penal code criminalizes discrimination by government officials on the grounds of ‘nationality, sex, race, religion, or any other condition of a person,’ creating space for prosecutions on the grounds of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but the law does not cover abuses by non-state actors.”

“In 2015, El Salvador passed a landmark hate crimes bill that increased sentences for homicides and threats based on gender identity and expression and sexual orientation, as well as race, ethnicity, religion, gender and political affiliation, although the statute does not extend to other crimes, such as assault or rape.”

“The Special Comprehensive Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women, passed in 2011, establishes severe penalties for femicide, defined as the murder of a woman when motivated by ‘hatred or contempt for her status as a woman,’ but it does not alter sentences for other forms of physical and sexual violence against women.”

“Violence and discrimination take place in a context of family rejection and social stigma that have a negative impact on the well-being of LGBT people. Despite some progress in attitudes toward LGBT people in El Salvador, social stigma remains pervasive.”

“The Attorney General’s office in El Salvador released statistics in January 2020 indicating it had tabulated 692 cases of violence against LGBT and intersex people in five years. Importantly, the government has also acknowledged violations at the hands of security officials.”

“[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)]’s 2016 guidelines for asylum applications of Salvadorans stated that LGBT people have ‘consistently been targeted for attacks and murder by the gangs and other sectors of society, including by the police and other public authorities’ and that El Salvador’s gangs have demonstrated ‘virulent hatred and ill-treatment of persons based on of their perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity.’”

“[S]everal policy initiatives suggest good will on the part of government institutions to make policy inclusive of people of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. But for many LGBT people, daily life on the streets is controlled not by the state but by criminal gangs, including the two factions of the 18th Street Gang… LGBT people… face violence at the hands of gangs that can be motivated by anti-LGBT animus or opportunism related to LGBT people’s perceived or actual social and economic vulnerability. LGBT people also face violence from the police, and activists have pointed out that putting more police on the streets – a key feature of the Bukele administration’s approach to crime – is not necessarily beneficial for LGBT people.”

“While El Salvador’s penal code prohibits discrimination by state officials, as discussed above, LGBT people have no protection against violence in sectors such as education, employment, and housing. A 2018 study by Spain’s international development agency found that ‘the structural character of the discrimination and exclusion of LGBTI people places them, often from a young age, in a cycle of poverty because of the lack of access to services, opportunities, and social services.’”

(V. Obstacles to Asylum in the United States, and Their Impacts)

“Between January 2007 and November 2017, at least 2,253 LGBT people from the Northern Triangle entered the United States to seek protection from persecution…By the time LGBT asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle arrive at the southern US border, they have not only fled violence and discrimination at home, but are also often beaten down by violence and discrimination in transit through Mexico.”

“The risk of violence facing LGBT asylum seekers in Mexico is accompanied by the risk of discrimination.”

[tarragonblack1235813213455]

SOCIAL STUDIES

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GEOGRAPHY

WORLD POPULATION

The world population is 7.888 trillion people in 2021.

PACIFIC OCEAN

Indonesia has 273.8 million people.

NORTH AMERICA has four countries with

496.9 MILLION PEOPLE

North America is the third largest of the world’s continents, lying for the most part between THE ARCTIC CIRCLE and THE TROPIC OF CANCER. It could extend to within 500 miles of both THE NORTH POLE and THE EQUATOR. It will cover an area of 9,355,000 square miles in total. North America will occupy the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as THE NEW WORLD, THE AMERICAS, or THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. The mainland of North America is shaped roughly like a triangle, with its base in the north and its apex in the south; associated with the continent is GREENLAND, the largest island in the world. Other extentions are such offshore groups as THE ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO, THE WEST INDIES, HAIDA GWAII, AND THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. North America is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. To the northeast, Greenland is separated from Iceland by the DENMARK STRAIT, and to the northwest, Alaska is separated from the Asian mainland by the much narrower BERING STRAIT. North America is connected together with Central America by land. MOUNT MCKINLEY in Alaska, rising 20,310 feet above sea level, is the continent’s highest point, and DEATH VALLEY in California, at 282 feet below sea level, is its lowest. North America’s coastline of some 37,000 miles—the second longest of the continents after Asia—is notable for the great number of indentations, particularly in the northern half.

1. United States of America

331.9 million people

2. Greenland (Apart of DENMARK)

56.7 thousand people

3. Canada

38.25 million people

4. Mexico

126.7 million people

CENTRAL AMERICA has seven countries with

50.5 MILLION PEOPLE

1. Guatemala

17.11 million people

2. Belize

400.0 thousand people

3. El Salvador

6.314 million people

4. Honduras

10.28 million people

5. Nicaragua

6.851 million people

6. Costa Rica

5.154 million people

7. Panama

4.351 million people

SOUTH AMERICA has thirteen countries with

434.8 MILLION PEOPLE

South America is the fourth largest of the world’s continents. It is the southern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, or simply the Americas. The continent is compact and roughly triangular in shape; it is broad in the north and tapering to a point—Cape Horn, Chile—in the south. South America is bounded by the Caribbean Sea to the northwest and north, the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast, east, and southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. In the northwest, it is joined to Central America by the Isthmus of Panama, a land bridge. Drake Passage, south of Cape Horn, will separate South America from Antarctica. Relatively few islands rim the continent, except in the south. These include the glaciated coastal archipelagoes of Argentina and Chile. The Falkland Islands are east of southern Argentina. To the north, the West Indies stretched from Trinidad to Florida, but those islands usually are associated with North America. Of the remainder, most are small oceanic islands off the coasts of South America, including the Galapagos Islands. South America has a total area of 6,878,000 square miles. Its greatest north-south extent is about 4,700 miles, from Point Gallinas, Colombia, to Cape Horn, while its greatest east-west extent is 3,300 miles, from Cape Branco, Brazil, to Point Pariñas, Peru. At 22,831 feet above sea level, Mount Aconcagua, in Argentina, near the border with Chile, is not only the continent’s highest point but also the highest elevation in the Western Hemisphere. The Valdés Peninsula, on the southeastern coast of Argentina, will include the lowest point, at 131 feet below sea level. In relation to its area, the continent’s coastline—some 15,800 miles in length—is exceptionally short.

1. French Guiana

306.5 thousand people

2. Suriname

612.3 thousand people

3. Guyana

804.6 thousand people

4. Venezuela

28.2 million people

5. Colombian

51.52 million people

6. Ecuador

17.8 million people

7. Peru

33.72 million people

8. Bolivia

12.08 million people

9. Paraguay

6.704 million people

10. Brazil

214.3 million people

11. Uruguay

3.426 million people

12. Argentina

45.81 million people

13. Chile

19.49 million people.

ATLANTIC OCEAN has seven countries located within the boundaries of this space that have

40.6 MILLION PEOPLE

1. Cuba

11.26 million people

2. Jamaica

2.828 million people

3. Haiti

11.45 million people

4. Dominican Republic

11.12 million people

5. Puerto Rico

3.264 million people

6. Virgin Islands

137.0 thousand people

7. Santiago Cape Verde

491.0 thousand people

AFRICA has fifty-eight countries with

1. Tunsinia

12.26 million people

2. Algeria

44.18 million people

3. Morocco

37.08 million people

4. Libya

6.735 million people

5. Egypt

109.3 million people

6. Palestine

4.923 million people

7. Israel

9.364 million people

8. Jordan

11.15 million people

9. Kuwait

4.25 million people

10. Saudi Arabia

35.95 million people

11. United Arab Emirates

9.365 million people

12. Oman

4.52 million people

13. Yemen

32.98 million people

14. Western Sahara

0.566 million people

15. Mauritania

4.615 million people

16. Mali

21.9 million people

17. Niger

25.25 million people

18. Chad

17.18 million people

19. Sudan

45.66 million people

20. Eritrea

3.62 million people

21. Djibouti

1.11 million people

22. Ethiopia

120.3 million people

23. Somalia

17.07 million people

24. Senegal

16.88 million people

25. Gambia

2.64 million people

26. Guinea-Bissau

2.06 million people

27. Guinea

13.53 million people

28. Sierra Leone

8.42 million people

29. Liberia

5.19 million people

30. Ivory Coast

27.66 million people

31. Burkina Faso

22.14 million people

32. Ghana

32.83 million people

33. Togo

8.655 million people

34. Benin

13.00 million people

35. Nigeria

213.4 million people

36. Cameroon

27.2 million people

37. Central African Republic

5.5 million people

38. Equatorial Guinea

1.5 million people

39. Gabon

2.3 million people

40. Republic of the Congo

5.84 million people

41. Zaire

95.89 million people

42. Uganda

45.85 million people

43. Rwanda

13.46 million people

44. Kenya

53.01 million people

45. Burundi

12.5 million people

46. Tanzania

63.59 million people

47. Angola

32.87 million people

48. Zambia

19.47 million people

49. Malawi

19.89 million people

50. Mozambique

32.08 million people

51. Zimbabwe

15.99 million people

52. Namibia

2.53 million people

53. Botswana

2.59 million people

54. Swaziland

1.09 million people

55. Lesotho

2.28 million people

56. South Africa

59.39 million people

57. Comoros

0.822 million people

58. Madagascar

28.92 million people

EUROPE

Portugal has 10.33 million people.

Spain has 47.42 million people.

France has 67.75 million people.

Ireland has 7.0 million people.

United Kingdom has 67.33 million people.

Netherlands has 17.53 million people.

Denmark has 5.86 million people.

Iceland has 372.5 thousand people.

Norway has 5.41 million people.

Sweden has 10.42 million people.

Finland has 5.54 million people.

Germany has 83.2 million people.

Poland has 37.75 million people.

Belarus

Estonia

Lavita has 1.884 million people.

Lithuania

Turkey has 84.78 million people.

INDIAN OCEAN

ASIA

China has 1.412 billion people.

India has 1.408 billion people.

Iraq has 43.53 million people.

Pakistan has 231.4 million people.

Japan has 125.7 million people.

Russia has 143.4 million people.

Australia has 25.69 million people.

ARCTIC OCEAN

[minmaneth]

[ircats]

[gurutrends]

The Northern Triangle and the US plan to create half a million jobs with new investments

The Think HUGE Business and Investment Council , a program that combines the efforts of Honduras, the United States , Guatemala and El Salvador, held its 3rd Annual Meeting in which progress was made in promoting investment and creating jobs in the Northern Triangle of Central America and the United States during 2024 , as well as its prospects for 2025. US Under Secretary of State for Economic…

[chamerionwrites]

When the Trump administration issued an immigration ban on citizens of seven majority Muslim countries a year ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent out an unambiguous tweet about Canada's stance on refugees and asylum seekers.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength,” Trudeau wrote on Jan. 28.

But when U.S. Homeland Security announced this week that it was withdrawing Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for 200,000 Salvadorans, giving them 18 months to sort out their immigration status permanently or face deportation, the reaction from the Canadian government was more muted.

Fearing an influx of newcomers crossing “irregularly” into Canada from the United States, the Canadian government has embarked on an information campaign to discourage Salvadorans from trekking north, as thousands of Haitians did when threatened with a loss of protected status last summer...

Last summer, when rumors swirled through the Haitian community that they were going to lose the TPS designation in place since the 2010 Haiti earthquake (the designation was lifted in November), a wave of Haitians headed to the Canadian border. As many as 250 people a day crossed “irregularly” along a rural road in upstate New York into neighboring Quebec, prompting a crisis of sorts, with authorities forced to put a temporary tent encampment at the border and house migrants at Montreal’s Olympic stadium...

Under the terms of the Canada-U. S. Safe Third Country Agreement, most migrants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in. For many migrants crossing into Canada from the United States, that means they are legally blocked from entering Canada at a regular border point. But if they cross “irregularly” through the undefended frontier, they are arrested but can immediately make a refugee claim. After undergoing a security check, they can stay in the country until they get a hearing.

Refugee claimants can work and receive health care while waiting for their hearings. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 14,467 people crossed into Canada outside legal border points in the first nine months of 2017, with half coming from Haiti.

Angela Ventura, spokeswoman for the El Salvador Association of Windsor, Ontario, said she has already been getting calls from Salvadorans living in the United States, anxious to know whether they should come to Canada if they’re forced to leave the United States.