Ted Hesson, Daina Beth Solomon

LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON – U.S. vice president Kamala Harris has collected $3.2 billion of corporate pledges from companies to combat the causes that lead some Central Americans to move to the United States. She will highlight this effort Tuesday at the Summit of the Americas.

Companies including Visa (NYSE 🙂 and Gap Inc (NYSE 🙂 have made new commitments totaling $1.9 billion. This is more than twice the December private sector promise of $1.2 billion.

These pledges are a key part of President Joe Biden’s plan to tackle the “root causes” of the migration crisis from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, also known as the Northern Triangle.

Harris says that the latest round of corporate investment aims to create new jobs, increase internet access, and more people to formal banking.

U.S. attempts to stop migration from the Northern Triangle were hampered by corruption. Projects worth many millions have been abandoned and private sector involvement has been stalled.

Complicating matters further, Guatemala’s President Nayib Bukele and Honduras’ presidents indicated they would not be attending the summit and that instead will send their officials. It is not clear if El Salvador’s President Nayib Buukele will be there.

Visa has pledged $270million to help bring in 6.5 millions people. Gap Inc also pledged $150 million, which will be used by the company to expand the supply of materials from the area.

These companies are in a wide range of industry sectors including agriculture, telecommunications, and digital services.

Harris will also promote a private-sector initiative that is women-oriented. It aims to link 1.4 million women with financial services and to train over 500,000 girls and women in jobskills.

Harris will also launch the Central American Service Corps initiative, worth $50 millions. It is designed to provide paid community services opportunities for youth in the Northern Triangle such as education or violence prevention. This program will be managed by USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development).

A number of thousands of Venezuelan migrants set off Monday from South Mexico in an attempt to reach the United States. They were scheduled to arrive at the summit just as they left.

According to Reuters witnesses at Tapachula near Mexico’s border, Guatemala, approximately 6000 people fled the area.