Central America leaders to ask Obama for plan to stem child exodus

U.S. President Barack Obama walks to depart via Marine One helicopter from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington July 18, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Central American leaders will ask U.S. President Barack Obama to support a regional development and security plan to stem the tide of illegal child migrants to the United States at a meeting next week, a Honduran minister said on Saturday.

Presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras will meet with Obama on Friday to look for ways to curb a record-breaking exodus of Central American children, fleeing to the United States to escape violence and poverty.