EDITOR'S NOTE: Anchor Giselle Fernandez is in Guatemala covering Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit. Click the arrow above to watch the video.

GUATEMALA CITY — Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Guatemala with a message of hope Monday as she met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to address the root causes of migration to the U.S. from the country.

The meeting comes as the Biden administration is expected to announce new anti-trafficking and smuggling measures and hopes to deliver new anti-corruption measures Monday, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview announcements before they have been made public. Harris is visiting Guatemala and Mexico as part of her role in dealing diplomatically with the irregular migration to the U.S., and she will meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday.

With Giammattei, Harris is expected to discuss everything from vaccine sharing to economic development in Guatemala. But the country’s widespread corruption will loom over their conversations, even as Harris seeks new agreements with Giammattei to help stem the spike in migration. Guatemala is responsible for nearly 40% of the huge surge of unaccompanied minors fleeing to America, many citing devastating back-to-back hurricanes along with the pandemic for decimating the country’s already collapsing economy. 

Mass unemployment, malnutrition and devastating poverty offer no future here, but protesters staging demonstrations in constitution plaza in front of the national palace where the vice president is meeting with President Giammattei, make clear systemic government corruption is also to blame. Indigenous and human rights activists plead with Harris to ensure accountability and bring help to the suffering communities abandoned by the Guatemalan government. Protest organizer Carmen Reina believes the vice president is being lied to by the very government officials who starve and betray the country. “President Giammattei has betrayed his people,” said Reina. “American aid never reaches the poor and is pocketed by the rich.”

Stories of corruption make headlines almost every day in La Hora, one of Guatemala's most powerful anti-corruption newspapers. The paper reports on various matters of government suppression, including Giammattei actively trying to abolish the attorney general’s office investigating corruption. The country has attempted to silence publications that hold officials accountable with new laws banning advertising for papers like La Hora that highlight the country’s depravity. 

“The challenge we face right now, Vice President Harris has spoken about, the structural causes of migration,” said Pedro Pablo Marroquin, editor in chief of La Hora. “We need to address the structural causes of corruption.” 

Prohibiting advertising for anti-government publications is just one of the ways the government prevents citizens from speaking out against the country.  

Last November, indigenous protesters filled the constitution plaza, fighting for more rights to be heard. The government responded with violent force and dispatched the military to muzzle the outcries of the people. “That sent a strong message not to speak out against the government,” said Marroquin.

Human rights activists have since erected memorials in the plaza as a reminder of the horrific abuses by the Giammattei administration — names and faded faces whose killers were never brought to justice. Perhaps the greatest reminder is a circle of crosses that commemorates the lives of more than 50 young girls in their teens killed in government safe housing. Following claims of abuse, the young teens burned to death with no investigation and no accountability.  

Harris’ aides say corruption will continue to be a central focus of her bilateral meetings with both Giammattei and López Obrador. Besides her meeting with Giammattei on Monday morning, Harris will participate in a roundtable with the Guatemalan community and civil society leaders, and she’ll meet with young innovators and entrepreneurs, including several female entrepreneurs.

The visit by America’s first woman vice president just may be the catalyst for change so many Guatemalans long for. 

Harris’ visit is no doubt historic, but the question remains: Is it enough to bring real change to a country embroiled in corruption for decades where hundreds of millions of American aid never seem to make it to the people who need it most? 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.