Madame VP Kamala Harris’ Closet

 June 6th

On Sunday, Madam Vice President Harris began her first foreign trip which was to Guatemala and Mexico. The flight which depart from Joint Base Andrews got off to a rocky start Sunday, when a technical issue grounded Air Force 2 after about 30 minutes into the flight.

It was two hours later when she and accompanying passengers switched planes to the back-up C32, which is an Air Force Boeing modified 757 before continuing on to Guatemala City, where she held the first of two days of talks on Monday to discuss the root causes of migration from Central America and Mexico.

Photo Credit: Opal Vadhan 46/Twitter

Vice President Harris has described her task as finding solutions to tackle the root causes of the border crisis, including corruption and the lack of economic opportunities. Her staff say this first visit is primarily an information-gathering trip.

On arrival in the capital city Guatemala City she was welcome after deplaning by Guatemala's Foreign Affairs Pedro Brolo and US Ambassador to Guatemala William Pop.

June 7th

On Monday, she met with Guatemalan President Dr. Alejandro Giammattei at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura where they first began the day with a two-hour round and bilateral table frank and candid meeting with both sides directly addressing what they want and where their concerns lie.

“We don’t have time for glossing over concerns that we have, and so we did have a very frank conversation about the importance of an independent judiciary. We had a conversation about the importance of a strong civil society,” Harris said, nodding to areas where Giammattei and his allies have faced criticism.

During the meeting, the Vice President laid out a plan on how to deter migration to the U.S. by working to improve both physical and economic security and combat corruption. She further explained that The Biden Administration will create an anti-corruption task force that will conduct investigations and will also enlist U.S. prosecutors and law enforcement officers to train their Central American counterparts to build corruption cases. The U.S. will also launch a task force to help combat human smuggling and trafficking across the various borders.

2) After both the Vice President and the Guatemalan President held a Press Conference, Vice President Harris warned against illegal migration to the US, saying: "Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders." She further added that Guatemalans must be given a "sense of hope that help is on the way".

Photo Credit: Peter Velz 46/Twitter

"It must be coupled with relationships of trust. It must be coupled with tangible outcomes, in terms of what we do as leaders to convince people that there is a reason to be hopeful about their future and the future of their children," she further added.

Noting to areas where the Guatemalan President and its government have been lacking and have been facing criticism both in Guatemala and abroad, VP Harris “We don’t have time for glossing over concerns that we have, and so we did have a very frank conversation about the importance of an independent judiciary. We had a conversation about the importance of a strong civil society,” 

3) Later, she held another roundtable meeting with human rights activists and other Guatemalan civil society leaders accompanied by Ambassador William Pop on addressing the root causes of migration.

Photo Credit: Peter Velz 46/Twitter

During the meeting, Vice President Harris spoke of the “impact that the lack of judicial independence can have on civil society, especially with regard to the highest courts in the land.

Photo Credit: Sabrina Singh 46/Twitter

4) Then she held another roundtable meeting and spoke at a women's intergenerational innovators and entrepreneurs event held at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in Guatemala City.

She also visited the Lab where she participated and held conversations with the ladies where she learned about their businesses and the challenges faced by business owners

Photo Credits: Peter Velz 46/Twitter

Look Details

 On Wednesday, here's her publicly known schedule:

1) Vice President Kamala Harris delivered remarks as the keynote speaker for the Asian American, Native Hawaii and Pacific Island (AANHPI) Victory Alliance Summit which was held virtually by the Asian American Democratic political action committee with theme "From Victory to Unity," which bolsters the group's effort to harness an unprecedented surge of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters during the 2020 presidential election.

Vice President Harris who as the First Asian American to hold the post of Vice President spoke about the Hate Crime which was signed on May 20th by President Biden and calling on the country to unite around the AANHPI community experiencing a sharp rise in violent hate crimes. 

Other high-profile lawmakers, were Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth (IL), Mazie Hirono (HI) and Cory Booker (NJ) to Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

2) Then she virtually and in person met with leaders of the Guatemalan Justice Sector in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex.

 In part with her work in leading discussion with the Northern Triangle countries and will be visiting Guatemala next month, she and the leaders discussed Corruption and Injustice as one of the lead causes in the instability in the region.

 On Tuesday, here's Madam Vice President's schedule:

1) In the morning, she spoke with the Republic of Finland’s Head of State, President Sauli Niinistö. They discussed both the United States and Finland's close defense partnership and cooperation on global health, climate, and migration. 

2) She then hosted a virtually meeting with Guatemalan community based Organisations' leaders in the Southern Auditorium.

She heard about their various works on the grounds in Guatemala and in the United States as well in the wake of hurricanes, drought, and the pandemic. “We are building a comprehensive strategy that includes business leaders, community leaders,” Harris told the group during brief opening remarks open to the press.

“You will be able to tell me what has been working and what not has been working,” Harris said. “I want to learn what has worked and what has not from your perspective, and what might work and what not has been tried?”

Harris said “my focus is not going to be a broad sweeping approach,” but rather a “place-based approach.”

 1) Madam Vice President addressed United Nations representatives and stakeholders on the Dialogue on the Pandemic Preparedness and Response. She urged that bold actions were needed to prevent, detect, and respond to the threat of future infectious disease outbreaks and ensure resilient health systems.

Screenshot: The White House/Youtube

Vice President Harris highlighted the need for every country to take proactive action now to create a lasting global health security architecture that will strengthen world wide health systems and make the world more resilient in the face of future pandemics. 

She also called for the establishment of sustainable financing for global health security as a critical first step. Emphasizing on the additional areas which requires urgent action, including: identifying the factors that could trigger an immediate ‘no regrets’ global response to the next pandemic, how to establish regional surge capacity to build resilience against outbreaks, innovative methods of finance, and how these lines of effort will be coordinated among Member States.

She made it clear that preventing the next pandemic will require strong partnerships and collaboration amongst every country. She then thanked participants countries for coming together and taking an important first step toward that goal and expressed their hope to continue the dialogue at upcoming multilateral engagements, which includes the Rome Global Health Summit and the World Health Assembly which takes place next month.

2) Like announced on my April 24th post, Madam Vice President held a virtual meeting with The Republic of Guatemala's Head of State, President Alejandro Giammattei held at the Ceremonial Office.

Photo Credit: Vice President/Twitter

During the meeting, Vice President Harris said the United States wants to increase foreign aid to the region and manage migration in a more secure and humane way as the Administration and every important international Organisations involved are looking for ways to defuse a migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico.

She also said that in addition to both countries bilateral work and multilateral efforts, the United States is building a comprehensive strategy with international institutions, with allies around the globe, with foundations here in the United States, and the private sector as well as community organizations.

 Here's Madam Vice President's publicly known schedule for Thursday:

1) At 8:00 am, President Biden and Vice President Harris delivered remarks at the Virtual Leaders' Climate Summit hosted at the East Room. This event coincided with Earth Day which is honored on April 22nd, President Biden is hosting the event invited other World Leaders for a two summit which ends on Friday.

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Here's her remarks:   "I want to thank you for being here and for your leadership.  I have spoken with a number of you about the climate crisis.  We have talked about the scarcity of water, we have talked about the need to build resilience, and we have talked about the importance of investing in clean technologies. 

Together, of course, we come from very different places, but we share this common concern and this common threat.  Here in the United States, the storms hitting our Gulf Coast are worse every year.  The wildfires in my home state of California have grown in intensity.  And, of course, no nation or region is immune — whether it is Western Europe, where heat waves have made it very difficult to stay indoors, while risking a health risk; or the Pacific Islands, where rising sea levels threaten to encroach on the land and homes of lifelong residents; or in Central America, where, last year, two major hurricanes devastated entire communities. 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping,

Russian President Vladimir Putin,

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen,

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga,

England's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson

Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau

Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel,

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta,

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phucare.

2) Madam Vice President then held a virtual and in person discussion with leaders of governments, international institutions, the private sector, community organisation various foundations to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of migration from Northern Triangle countries.

It was later announce that in June, Vice President Harris will be visiting the Northern Triangle countries and she will be virtual calling Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei on Monday. Madam Vice President last spoke with Giammattei on March 30. On Tuesday, she will participate in a virtual roundtable with representatives from Guatemalan-community based organizations, a White House official said.