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Guatemala president fumes over infected deportees from US

Published:Thursday | May 21, 2020 | 5:28 PM
A woman crosses a street that's empty due to a tight lockdown in Guatemala City, early Friday, May 15, 2020. The government decreed a three-day, nationwide lockdown starting Friday to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s president questioned his country’s relationship with the United States, revealing frustration over America continuing to send deportees infected with COVID-19 to a country struggling to manage the crisis.

“This of allies with the United States isn’t true,” President Alejandro Giammattei said Thursday.

“Guatemala is an ally of the United States, but the United States is not Guatemala’s ally. They don’t treat us like an ally.”

Giammattei is the first of the region’s leaders to speak out against the US policy that has sent thousands of deportees back to their countries since the pandemic began.

Guatemala has confirmed 119 deportees arrived with COVID-19 from the United States.

The country has suspended the deportation flights on several occasions after infected passengers were detected, but resumed them after assurances from US authorities.

The last flight with deportees who tested positive in Guatemala arrived on May 13 from Alexandria, Louisiana.

Officials have said 16 of them have tested positive.

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson confirmed this week that all 65 migrants aboard that flight had been tested prior to departure.

Fifteen more Guatemalans scheduled to be on that flight tested positive and were returned to detention facilities where they were isolated from other detainees.

Guatemala has identified cases from previous flights where it appeared some had been tested and certified as negative a week before their departure.

Giammattei said the infected deportees were creating “serious problems” in his country’s already overloaded health system.

“The United States has helped other countries including with ventilators and to us nothing has come, not even chopped corn,” he said during an online appearance with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

“We don’t feel very grateful for the way we have been treated.”

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