Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, has announced a new anti-corruption drive, economic aid and tougher enforcement against human trafficking during a visit to Guatemala. But Harris, on her first foreign trip as vice-president, faced sceptical questions over whether the measures she announced would represent a real change in US policy in the region, at a time of worsening poverty and corruption. At a press conference in Guatemala City after talks with Harris on Monday, the country’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, was repeatedly asked whether he was part of the corruption problem, after the arrest of investigators who had been looking into government abuses, and allegations that Giammattei has been packing Guatemala’s highest court with compliant judges. The president blamed the allegations on misinformation on social media. “In how many cases of corruption have I been accused? I can give you the answer to that: zero,” Giammattei retorted. Harris insisted she had been blunt in her talks with Giammattei. “We don’t have time for glossing over the concerns that we have,” she said. “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. I expressed concerns about those issues.” On the day of Harris’s visit, the US justice department announced the establishment of a law enforcement taskforce aimed at fighting human trafficking and smuggling groups in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Harris, who is due to meet the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Tuesday, said the taskforce was aimed at bolstering Guatemalan investigators and civil society groups, and would “follow the money” to those who profit most from corruption and trafficking. Human rights activists say that under the Giamettei government, Guatemala is regressing on corruption and accountability. Last month, a corruption charge against a jailed former president, Otto Pérez Molina, was dropped and the investigators who had built the case against him were arrested. Giammattei has installed his chief of staff in the country’s constitutional court. After an anti-corruption campaigner, Gloria Porras, was elected to a second term on the court, the country’s congress, controlled by Giammmattei’s party, blocked her from taking her seat. A joint statement by several human rights advocacy groups before Harris’s visit said that “the rule of law has continued to deteriorate rapidly” in Guatemala. “In recent months, there have been alarming assaults against judicial independence by corrupt elites and criminal networks, seeking to ensure impunity for their crimes and reverse the progress that had been made to strengthen the rule of law,” the statement said. “Corruption really does sap the the wealth of any country, and in Central America is at a scale where it is a large percentage of GDP across the region,” the US special envoy to the region, Ricardo Zúñiga, said: “We see corruption as one of the most important root causes to be dealt with.” Zúñiga said the two nations would discuss the issue “clearly and plainly as partners, as countries that have to get along”. Harris also announced beefed-up border enforcement, $310m in humanitarian aid to provide support for refugees and address food shortages, and half a million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. On the eve of Harris’s arrival, Giammattei had accused the Biden administration of giving mixed messages on immigration, which had been exploited by human traffickers to persuade Guatemalans to risk the journey to the US. In her remarks on Monday, Harris insisted the message was unambiguous. “I want to be clear to folks in this region for thinking about making that dangerous trek to the US-Mexico border. Do not come. Do not come,” she said. Billions of dollars in US economic assistance has so far done little to dissuade families from fleeing northwards to escape political violence, corruption and poverty. Critics say too much of the money has gone to contractors and not enough to struggling Guatemalans. “We know, unfortunately by experience, that most of the time the resources from the US are not going to address the root causes directly and not benefiting people directly,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, the Americas director of Amnesty International. “Vice-president Harris should focus on real improvements of conditions for the majority of Central Americans, especially creating dignified jobs that allow people to earn a living and not simply be a low-wage labor force for the investor companies,” said Cecilia Menjívar, a sociology professor at the University of California in Los Angeles. “And less effort should go on expanding militarized strategies because these lead to more violence.”